North Shore Death Notices: April 25 To May 1

The following death notices were added to funeral homes serving the North Shore area in the past week. Those homes have provided obituaries for some of those that have passed away recently. Patch offers condolences to their loved ones, links to their obituaries and notices of upcoming services below.

Kelley & Spalding Funeral Home, 1787 Deerfield Road in Highland Park

Rosemary Gros Carson, 76, Chicago
Service May 8

Wayne Zabin, 84, of Northbrook

Bernard Joseph "Sandy" Browe, 78, Lincolnshire

Seguin & Symonds Funeral Home, 858 Sheridan Road in Highwood and 11 West Belvidere Road in Grayslake

Carmella Delores DeFilippis, 86, Highland Park

Wenban Funeral Home, 320 Vine Ave. in Lake Forest

Michael "Mike" V. Giangiorgi, 69, Grayslake
Service May 14

Charles William Kraemer, 98, Lake Bluff
Service May 21

Annamae Busse Pfeiler, 91, Lake Forest

Reuland & Turnbough Funeral Home, 1407 N. Western Ave. in Lake Forest

Irene Brigitte Taubmann née Hildebrandt, 90, Lake Bluff

Chicago Jewish Funerals, 8851 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie and 195 N. Buffalo Grove Road in Buffalo Grove

Lillian Binder née Gluck, 95, Highland Park
May 3

Rhona Harris née Kalnitz, 89, Northbrook
Service May 3

Mayer Smith, 97, Chicago
Service May 4

Richard D. Glickman, 78, Chicago
Service May 10

Jack S. Jacobs, 102, Highland Park

Ralph G. Silver, 94, Northbrook

Barbara "Babs" Tintner, 93, Highland Park

Sheila Muriel Orleans, 90, Deerfield

Edeliya Livshits, 88, Skokie

Hersholt Jack Rosman, 88, Chicago

Joel Schwartz, 84, Deer Park

Donnellan Funeral Home, 10045 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie

Erika Hlavacek, 47, Wilmette
Visitation May 3, service May 4

Rose Mary Denniston née McAuliff, 92, Winnetka
Visitation May 5, service May 6

Maureen McGee Kogen, 54, Northbrook
Visitation May 5, service May 6

David Edward Goodrich, 61, Chicago
Service May 14

Helen LaPat Smith, 95, Evanston

Patricia "Tish" N. Sutton née Burke, 93, Chicago

John C. Tower, 90, Glenview

Mary Joanne McCabe née Wehmer, 87, Wheeling

Kai Fong “Bao Di” Lee, 82, Vernon Hills

Joseph Adam Porok, 74, Evanston

George Raymond Pinkowski, 72, Northbrook

Haben Funeral Home, 8057 Niles Center Road in Skokie

Michael A. Wulsch, 76, Skokie
Visitation May 3, service May 4

Alice Valeroso née Munoz, 77, Chicago
Visitation May 5, service May 6

Marie E. "Maria" Bartels, 86, Skokie
Service May 13

Charlotte R. Kalas née Kindt, 94, Skokie
Service May 18

Earl Francis Nicholas, 93, Skokie

Raghavan Varadachary, 78, Northbook

Thompson Funeral and Cremation, 1917 Asbury Ave. in Evanston

Ladell Lane, 89, Evanston

Jamere Maurice Gregory, 33, Evanston

Evanston Funeral and Cremation, 1726 Central St. in Evanston

Patricia Ann Buck, 95, Evanston

Lynne Vierk, 67, Evanston

N. H. Scott & Hanekamp Funeral Home, 1240 Waukegan Road in Glenview

Eugene E. Ruth, 92, Wilmette
Service May 3

Ronald John Butkus, 85, Glenview
Service May 4

Lois E. Giberson née Lathop, 84, Niles
Service May 7

Helen L. Pulver, 94, Wilmette

Ruth Perry Shultz, 87, Northbrook

Geoffrey P. Block, 58, Lake Forest

Weinstein & Piser Funeral Home, 111 Skokie Blvd. in Wilmette

Jack Isaac Samuel, 87, Deerfield
Service May 3

Sybelle Heilbrunn née Yarmo, 99, Glenwood
Service May 4

Eilene Delsohn, 97, Camarillo, California

Jerome "Jerry" E. Tarrson, 94, Buffalo Grove

Donald Matusoff, 92, Deerfield

Arnold Lew Widen, 92, Evanston

Elaine Burg, 89, Santa Barbara, California

Clarence Robert Lawrence, 88, Glenview

Sheila Feuchtwang, 87, San Carlos, California

Charles Locker, 86, Chicago

Oleg Grichevskiy, 84, Chicago

Harold "Hal" Malen, 79, Highland Park

Steven R. Merola, 71, Lincolnwood

Toni Goldsmith, 66, Highland Park

Featured Obituary:

Raghavan Varadachary was born in Neervalur, a tiny hamlet in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, in 1943. Neervalur is a small, religious village approximately 63 kilometers southwest of Chennai. Raghavan was the first of eight children born to Jayamma and VK Varadachary, and grew up in a modest, two room home with his parents and siblings. At age 8, Raghavan’s grandmother made the decision to move him and his younger brothers to the city to receive an exceptional education. Raghavan moved in with his uncle VK Parthasarathy and cousins in Chennai.

Raghavan excelled at school. He completed his BSc in Chemistry at Loyola College in Chennai, followed by his MS in Chemistry at University of Madras. He then began working as a college instructor at Madras Christian College in 1963. In 1967, he learned of an opportunity to travel abroad and study in America. From 1921 until 1965, immigration to America from Asia was effectively banned. That changed with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which opened America’s doors to Asians for the first time in over 40 years. Two years after the Act was passed, Raghavan applied to be a PhD student in the Chemistry Department at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Raghavan was accepted and made a long and lonely journey to America. Like the Eastern European immigrants of the past, Raghavan’s name went through a transformation when he arrived. He adopted his village’s name as his first name, his birth name as his last name, his last name as his middle name, and became: Neervalur V. Raghavan. Raghavan lived with four childhood friends from Chennai in a small apartment in South Central Los Angeles. He worked odd jobs to pay the rent (including a stint as a dishwasher at McDonald’s, which must have been challenging as a strict vegetarian).

In 1973, Raghavan earned his PhD, and was accepted as a post-doc in the chemistry department at the Ohio State. In 1975, he married Vathsala Chakravarthy, and the two settled in the Midwest, first to Columbus, Ohio, then to South Bend, Indiana, and eventually to the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Raghavan began post-doctoral work at Notre Dame while Vathsala began a fellowship at Northwestern.

In 1979, their first son, Vijay, was born. In 1982, their second son, Harish, was born. During their time in Hyde Park, Vathsala and Raghavan sponsored the immigration to America of three of Raghavan’s siblings, four of Vathsala’s siblings, and their parents. In 1983, Raghavan took a job at Baxter International in Deerfield, Illinois. The family then moved to Northbrook, Illinois. In 1986, Vathsala and Raghavan’s third son, Ravi, was born.

Raghavan had a long and successful career at Baxter. Despite suffering from a stroke in 2007 and limited by physical disabilities, he continued to work productively until his retirement in 2010 with the title of Vice President of Pharmaceutical Research & Development. Raghavan continued providing consulting services in his post-retireme

nt years. Raghavan’s journey to America in 1967, like the journey of many other women and men around the same time, would change the trajectory of his family. When Raghavan came to America, there were fewer than 1 million Asians dispersed across the country (of which, Indians were an extremely small percentage). Today, there are almost 19 million Asians in America, including over 5 million Indians. In the intervening years, Vathsala and Raghavan would work tirelessly to support their family by bringing family members to America and sending money back home. All while working very demanding jobs and raising three rowdy children. He had a philanthropical heart and could never say no to his family or friends.

Raghavan’s knowledge and wisdom were not limited to chemistry; throughout his life he had a tremendous impact around all that surrounded him. Raghavan was often found behind the lens of a video camera as his boys were growing up, had a passion for real estate, loved Sudoku puzzles, and his favorite vacation would involve playing blackjack in Las Vegas.

Send obituaries and images to your Patch to be included in future editions: Deerfield, Evanston, Glenview, Highland Park, Lake Bluff-Lake Forest, Niles-Morton Grove, Northbrook, Skokie, Winnetka-Glencoe-Northbrook, Wilmette-Kenilworth

Last week: North Shore Death Notices: April 18 to April 24