North Shore Death Notices Dec. 3 - Dec. 9

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

Elliott S. Shapiro, 91, Highland Park
Service Dec. 10

Loretta M. Monterastelli, 96
Service Dec. 15

Eileen K. Ryan-Wilson, 75, Glenview
Service Dec. 29

Patricia A. Moran, 89

Nancy A. Happ née Bell, 88, Highland Park

David M. Schulz, 73

Janet L. Fretland, 68, Highland Park

Wenben Funeral Home, 320 Vine Ave. in Lake Forest

Mildred N. Sorensen, 86, Lake Forest
Service Dec. 10

Doris L. Harkaway, 91, Lincolnshire
Service Dec. 29

Grace Darling Schuster, 99, Lake Forest

Albert V. Bazarian, 94, Lake Forest

Clark Louis Schmitz, 91, Lake Forest

Chicago Jewish Funerals, 8851 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie

Sidney Daitch, 98, Buffalo Grove
Service Dec. 10

Sonia Katz, 96, Highland Park
Service Dec. 10

Rose "Wallie" Wigoda, 94, Chicago
Service Dec. 10

Ruth Levy, 90, Buffalo Grove
Service Dec. 10

Frank Resnik, 76, Chicago
Service Dec. 10

Sofiya Lenarchik, 71, Buffalo Grove
Service Dec. 10

Melvin L. Rukin, 87, Lincolnshire
Service Dec. 12

Ancy Rochelle Starkman, 83, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Service Dec. 11

Mariya Sirotinskaya, 92, Chicago

Sidney Weinschneider, 89, Chicago

Louis B. Raffel, 85, Lincolnshire

Elizabeth H. Belkin, 72, Skokie

Elaine S. Scheye, 73, Chicago

Susan Alberts, 71, Evanston

Jeffrey Jay Kane, 58, Skokie

Stephan Marc Fleisher, 52, Highland Park

Sandra Bloom née Dinken, 73, Des Plaines

Mildred Cohen, Rolling Meadows

Donnellan Funeral Home, 10045 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie

George H. Kennedy, 87, Northfield
Service Dec. 10

Bonnie McFarland, 70, Wilmette
Visitation Dec. 10

Peter J. Thornton, 74, Evanston
Service Dec. 10, Mass Dec. 11

Sarah E. Filler, 71, Evanston
Service Jan. 26

Stanley J. Gaynor, 83, Winnetka

AeLee Karm Linden, 56, Evanston

Haben Funeral Home, 8057 Niles Center Road in Skokie

Barbara Ann Rambis, 92, Skokie

Ceferino A. Rivero, 85, Des Plaines

Thomas Plemich, 66, Arlington Heights

Simkins Funeral Home, 6251 Dempster St. in Morton Grove

Marianne C. Menotti née Abbate, 80, Glenview
Service Dec. 13

Donald Sandberg, 59, Morton Grove

Weinstein & Piser Funeral Home, 111 Skokie Boulevard in Wilmette

Marilyn Chapman, 89, Chicago
Service Dec. 11

Featured obituary:

Lutrelle “Lute” Wassmann, age 92, of Wilmette. Beloved husband of the late Alice “Pat” Wassmann nee Cooney; loving father of Mary (Rick) Pautler, Ann (Tom Edwards) Wassmann, Dan (Kathy) Wassmann, Sue Panno Trainor (Steve and the late John Panno) and Sally (Richard) Baylaender; dear grandfather of Allison, Andrew (Lindsey) and Maggie Pautler, Elizabeth, Emily and Peter Wassmann, Michael, Paul and Mark (Courtney) Panno and Christopher Baylaender; great grandfather of Hannah, Campbell and Noah Pautler and Benjamin Panno; brother of Marion (the late John) June Hanna and the late Leonard (the late Alice) Wassmann.

Lute was born on a farm near Crete, Illinois in 1926. His full first name was Lutrelle, but everyone called him Lute. He grew up in the far southern suburb of Chicago Heights and attended Bloom High School, which his wife of 63 years, Pat, also attended.

World War II was a big part of his late teens. He served in the U.S. Navy when he was 18 and 19 and was trained to be a gunner on the same type of torpedo bomber aircraft that was piloted by the recently deceased George Bush, Sr. Lute was waiting to be deployed to the Pacific when the war ended in 1945. After active duty ended, he continued his military career in the naval reserves for many years.

The GI Bill allowed Lute to go to a four-year college. After the war and before starting classes at the University of Illinois, he was taking college preparatory classes at Bloom High School when he met Pat. They dated through college and were married in 1952. In 1956, they bought a house in Wilmette where they raised their five children and lived their entire life.

Lute was an industrial designer. He started his career working for well-known firms such as Raymond Loewy & Associates and Latham, Tyler and Jensen, designing products ranging from medical equipment to stereo components to kitchen utensils to bathroom scales. Ultimately, he started his own business, providing contemporary industrial, graphic and space designs that were user-friendly, visually-pleasing and devoid of excessive ornamentation.

Lute was also a design professor for many years at the Illinois Institute of Technology, serving as director of IIT’s Institute of Design for a period in the 1960s.

Throughout his life, Lute was an artist, creating paintings and collages focusing on social justice, the beauty of nature, religion, and neighborhood slices of life. Digital images of his many paintings can be viewed at www.bigtowergallery.com/lute-wassmann.

He was also generous with his time, providing design help to friends and neighbors that led to construction of a slew of attractive decks and home renovations.

In addition, he gave his time frequently to charitable causes, including overseeing the donation by St. Francis Xavier parishioners of toiletries to inmates at Cook County Jail, volunteering at soup kitchens, and teaching art to kids in the former Cabrini Green neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side.
Lute and Pat were active Saint Francis Xavier parishioners for the entire time they lived in Wilmette.

Visitation: Monday, December 17, 2018, 12:00 Noon until immediately followed by a Memorial Mass: at 2:00 p.m. at Saint Francis Xavier Church, 9th Street and Linden Avenue, Wilmette, IL 60091.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to:
Saint Vincent de Paul Society in care of Saint Francis Xavier
524 9th Street
Wilmette, IL 60091

via Donnellan Family Funeral Services

Last week: North Shore Death Notices Nov. 26 - Dec. 2