Dennis Gorman 1942-2024
Dennis W. Gorman, age 82, of Quincy, died peacefully Tuesday morning, June 25, 2024, in Blessing Hospital.
Dennis was born June 16, 1942, in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Wayne and Norma (Laney) Gorman. He graduated from Quincy High School in 1960, attended Washington University in St. Louis, and then graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1964. He was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. In 1967 he earned his juris doctor from the University of Illinois College of Law and was admitted to the Illinois Bar. Later he was admitted to the Missouri Bar.
On June 27, 1964, he married Barbara Keller at the Lutheran Church of St. John in Quincy. This week they would have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Barb survives.
For 50 years, Dennis practiced law in Quincy, beginning in 1967 in a partnership with Ira C. Pierson. He served as city attorney and then became an assistant state’s attorney, a part-time position, while building his private practice in banking, real estate, probate, and small corporations. He then began a lengthy career as a school lawyer, first for Quincy Public School District #172 and then for several other public school districts in West-Central Illinois, Culver-Stockton College, and Quincy University. He was a lecturer in school law at Quincy University for several years.
After practicing law in various other partnerships, he joined the law firm of Schmiedeskamp Robertson Neu & Mitchell LLP in 1995 and remained there through his retirement in 2017. He was particularly grateful and honored to work there with his son and law partner, Brett K. Gorman.
Dennis was a member and past president of the Adams County Bar Association and the Quincy Country Club. He served for 49 years as a member of the Board of Directors of State Street Bank.
Boy Scouts, its life lessons, and the outdoors were among Dennis’s greatest passions. He was an Eagle Scout and was selected to represent Illinois for the Boy Scout Report to the Nation in 1960 in Washington D.C. While having lunch with the United States Supreme Court justices during the trip, a justice suggested Dennis might consider practicing law.
Dennis served on the Executive Board for the Mississippi Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He championed the Friends of Scouting annual fundraising campaign for many years. He was featured by the Scouting magazine in 1981 for his service, received the Silver Beaver Award, earned the James West Fellowship Award, and was also honored with the Scout’s Distinguished Citizen Award.
Dennis was a lifelong member of Faith Presbyterian Church. He served numerous terms as an Elder and engaged at the national level on Presbyterian church matters.
In addition to Scouts and his faith, Dennis enjoyed hiking, biking, and traveling with his wife and family, trout fishing, and golfing. He also valued greatly his youthful summers visiting his family in Cook Station, Missouri.
Survivors in addition to his wife are his daughter, Wendy (Tim) Koontz of Quincy; daughter-in-law, Debbie Gorman of Quincy; five granddaughters, Megan (Jackson) O’Connor of Quincy, Alice Gorman of Chicago, Illinois, Madelyn (Matthew) Dean of Orlando, Florida, Kate Gorman of Denver, Colorado, and Anne Gorman of Orvieto, Italy; a great-granddaughter, Charlotte O’Connor of Quincy; a sister Carol (Gregory) Alster of Morton, Illinois; brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, Bill and Lynda Keller and Dennis and Marianne Cashman, all of Quincy; as well as several nephews, nieces, great nephews, great nieces, and cousins. He was preceded in death by his parents, his in-laws, Bill and Margaret Keller, and his son Brett.
Memorials: Community Foundation Scouting Forever Endowment, Faith Presbyterian Church, or the Quincy Public Schools Foundation. Memorial donations may be made through the Hansen-Spear Funeral Home website.