William J. Bauer

William Joseph Bauer was born on September 15, 1926, in Chicago, Illinois. He served in the United States Army from 1945 to 1947. He received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1949 from Elmhurst College and a Juris Doctor in 1952 from DePaul University College of Law. ==Career==

Bauer served as an assistant state's attorney in DuPage County, Illinois, from 1952 to 1956, serving as first assistant state's attorney from 1956 to 1958 and serving as state's attorney from 1959 to 1964. Federal judicial service Bauer was nominated by President Richard Nixon on September 14, 1971, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois vacated by Judge Joseph Sam Perry. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 8, 1971, and received his commission on November 10, 1971. He assumed senior status on October 31, 1994. He was a Member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1987 to 1993. On September 30, 2022, at the age of 96, Bauer transitioned to inactive senior status on the Court of Appeals. ==Personal life and legacy==

Bauer was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the state's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 2010 in the area of Government & Law. In 2013, Bauer married Patricia Spratt, an appellate litigator and a shareholder of the firm Shefsky & Froelich. She had previously clerked for Bauer in 1991 and 1992. In 2015, the Illinois Supreme Court appointed Spratt to a vacant judgeship on the 7th subcircuit of the Cook County Circuit Court. She was elected to the judgeship in 2016, and won retention in 2022. Bauer died in North Riverside, Illinois, on December 15, 2025, at the age of 99. ==See also==