In memoriam: May-June 2025

Ronald L. Aylward, age 94, of Chesterfield, on Jan. 24, 2025. Aylward graduated from the Washington University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1954. Aylward served as a judge advocate in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps before returning to private practice in St. Louis. He was assistant general counsel for the Olin Corporation. He then was assistant general counsel of the International Shoe Company, eventually serving as vice chairman of its board. He also opened Aylward & Associates. 

Jill Linnette Bates-Moore, age 47, of Oakland, California, on Aug. 28, 2024. Bates-Moore graduated from the University of Missouri School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 2002. She was a founder and partner at Dahlia Law Group LLP. 

Byron J. Beck, age 90, of Leawood, Kansas, on Dec. 9, 2023. Beck was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1959. He had a long career as a trial lawyer in Kansas City. Beck served in the U.S. Army. 

Nancye Lou (Briesacher) Bethurem, age 70, of Waynesville, on Feb. 4, 2025. Bethurem graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1982. She was a lawyer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Dallas, Texas. 

James E. Brown, age 76, of Kansas City, on Jan. 5, 2025. Brown graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1979. He was an assistant federal public defender in Kansas City and later founded his own practice focused on criminal defense law. Brown served in the U.S. Navy. 

Srikant B. Chigurupati, age 48, of St. Louis, on Jan. 28, 2025. Chigurupati graduated from the Washington University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 2003. He worked in the Missouri State Public Defender System in Hannibal and St. Louis before becoming a prosecutor in the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office. 

Elizabeth Ann Chopin, age 81, of St. Louis, on Jan. 5, 2025. Chopin graduated from the Saint Louis University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1975. She worked as a private practice lawyer in St. Louis. She later was director of Webster University in Vienna, Austria. 

Hon. Jeffrey L. Cox, age 48, of Raymore, on Jan. 5, 2024. Cox graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 2003. He served as Cass County associate circuit judge. 

Gary Wayne Duffy, age 74, of St. Peters, on Nov. 28, 2024. Duffy graduated from the University of Missouri School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1975. He worked for the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri Public Service Commission before becoming the general counsel for Missouri Power and Light. He later was a lawyer at Brydon, Swearengen and England. 

Mary Alice Estes, age 76, of Mountain Home, Arkansas, on Feb. 16, 2023. Estes was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1982.

Ronald Joseph Fahrenbacher, age 77, of Kansasville, Wisconsin, on April 21, 2019. Fahrenbacher graduated from the Tulane University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1984. He served in the U.S. Navy as a judge advocate and later was assistant district attorney for Kenosha County, Wisconsin. 

Robert Frager, age 87, of Prairie Village, Kansas, on Sept. 20, 2024. Frager graduated from the University of Missouri School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1961. He was an assistant prosecuting attorney in Jackson County for more than 20 years and maintained his practice specializing in immigration law. He served in the U.S. Army and U.S. Army National Guard. 

Harriet C. Frazier, age 90, of Kansas City, on Nov. 19, 2024. Frazier graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1975. Frazier taught English at several universities and taught law at the University of Central Missouri. 

Richard O. Funsch, age 92, of Princeton, New Jersey, on April 1, 2025. Funsch graduated from the Washington University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1959. He served as a judge advocate in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps and worked at several St. Louis law firms before starting his own in 1980. 

Louis Glaser, age 93, of St. Louis, on May 11, 2024. Glaser graduated from Washington University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1953. He served in the U.S. military. 

Joe A. Harter, age 78, of Kansas City, on Feb. 15, 2025. Harter graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1976. Harter’s practice specialized in real estate, tax, and business transactions. He was a partner at McDowell, Rice, Smith & Buchanan in Kansas City for more than 35 years. 

Bruce Graham Heavner, age 90, of Liberty, on Feb. 6, 2025. Heavner graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1963. He established Owens & Heavner, which later became Heavner, Jarrett & Kimball. Heavner served in the U.S. Air Force. 

James P. Holloran, age 81, of St. Louis, on Feb. 19, 2025. Holloran graduated from the Saint Louis University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1968. He practiced law for more than 50 years and received The Missouri Bar Foundation’s Lon O. Hocker Award. Holloran served on the Appellate Judicial Commission for Missouri’s Non-Partisan Court Plan. 

Howard Clifford Hoyt, age 68, of Lee’s Summit, on March 18, 2025. Hoyt graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1983. He was a prosecuting attorney for Kansas City before entering private practice, specializing in bankruptcy, traffic/DUI, criminal, and domestic law cases. He was also a hearing officer for the Board of Equalization. 

Roger Carson Jones, 79, of Springfield, on Dec. 28, 2024. Jones graduated from the Oklahoma City University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1986. He was a defense attorney in southwest Missouri and served in the U.S. Army.

David L. Knight, age 88, of Columbia, on Jan. 24, 2025. Knight graduated from the University of Missouri School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1962. He served in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps and practiced with Smith & Lewis. He then partnered with Hamp Ford. 

Susan D. Laughlin, age 76, of St. Louis, on Feb. 18, 2025. Laughlin graduated from the Saint Louis University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1996. Laughlin was a staff attorney for the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Don Lograsso, age 73, of Blue Springs, on March 12, 2025. Lograsso was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1981. 

Peter Lumaghi, age 73, of St. Louis, on Oct. 3, 2018. Lumaghi was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1974. 

Ronald Eugene Manka, age 75, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Dec. 13, 2019. Manka graduated from the University of Michigan School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1974. He practiced corporate law with an emphasis on public financing and spent most of his career at Lathrop Gage. 

Hon. Edward Bennett McInteer III, age 69, of Marshall, on Feb. 2, 2025. McInteer graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1988. He established his own practice in Marshall and served as the Marshall municipal judge. 

Hon. Mary Ann L. Medler, age 83, of St. Louis, on May 19, 2023. Medler graduated from the Saint Louis University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1983. She was a felony litigator at the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office before working as an associate counsel at the Union Pacific Railroad. She was appointed a magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in 1993. 

Paula Jean Meyer, age 72, of Hermann, on Oct. 27, 2024. Meyer was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1980. 

Hon. Gerald Meyr, age 63, of Moberly, on Jan. 28, 2025. Meyr graduated from the University of Missouri School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1988. He worked in private practice and at various Missouri agencies. Meyr was also an administrative law judge for the U.S. Social Security Administration. 

Michael Musich, age 69, of Ely, Minnesota, on Jan. 23, 2025. Musich graduated from the Saint Louis University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1980. He worked for the St. Louis Public Defender’s Office for several years and then joined a law firm specializing in corporate litigation. 

Mark Daniel Owen, age 71, of Nashville, Tennessee, on May 19, 2024. Owen graduated from the Washington University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1982. He practiced law in St. Louis and then worked for the city of Charlottesville, Virginia. He later became an elementary school teacher in Massachusetts. 

Michael Charles Pendergast, age 68, of St. Charles, on Jan. 23, 2025. Pendergast was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1981. 

John Richard Pink, age 79, of Pleasant Hill, on Nov. 4, 2024. Pink graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1970.

Edward William Rataj, age 77, of St. Louis, on Jan. 6, 2025. Rataj graduated from the Saint Louis University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1972. He was a partner at Bryan Cave, specializing in cases regarding the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. 

Scott W. Ross, age 76, of Maryville, on Feb. 24, 2025. Ross graduated from the University of Missouri School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1973. He moved to Maryville and went into practice with Joe and Rex Beavers, then with Larry Zahnd and Glen Dietrich, before becoming a sole practitioner. 

Ivan Schenberg, age 85, of St. Louis, on Jan. 4, 2025. Schenberg graduated from the Washington University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1963. He worked at a private practice and then for the federal government. He also was Winchester city attorney. Schenberg served in the U.S. Army. 

Charles J. “Chip” Schmelzer III, age 79, of Kansas City, on Dec. 14, 2024. Schmelzer graduated from the University of Missouri School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1970. Schmelzer was a real estate and estate planning lawyer for almost 40 years. He served in the U.S. Army. 

Richard Ferdinand “Riff” Scholz III, age 74, of Quincy, Illinois, on Jan. 18, 2025. Scholz graduated from the Loyola University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1993. He worked for the Cook County Public Defender’s Office, the Murder Task Force in Chicago, and the Missouri Public Defender’s Office in St. Louis. He later opened a private practice in Quincy. 

Arthur Shivers II, age 72, of St. Louis, on May 27, 2023. Shivers was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1994. 

John Karl Springborn, age 71, of St. Louis, on March 13, 2025. Springborn graduated from the Saint Louis University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1983. He was an assistant public defender, in-house corporate counsel, and worked in private practice in St. Louis County.

John Ross Tumbarello, age 80, of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, on Aug. 25, 2024. Tumbarello graduated from the Saint Louis University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1969. He worked at Deloitte before starting his own accounting firm, Citerman & Tumbarello, P.C. 

Leo Webb, age 85, of Clinton, Iowa, on April 17, 2024. Webb graduated from the Saint Louis University School of Law and was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1965. He later graduated from Georgetown University with his Master of Laws. He spent 35 years working for the federal government, including for the CIA and U.S. Senate. He also worked for the International Trade Commission and in retirement consulted on international space law for NASA. Webb served in the U.S. Army.