August 31, 2010
Do you remember Terry Smith who was with us in 1st and 2nd grade and then in 3rd grade his family moved to St. Barnabas? He and I were classmates again at Quigley and we worked together for Andy Frain. I dropped out of the seminary after Quigley because I did not think I could go through life without girls and I did not want to violate vows of celibacy. Terry made it up to about a year from ordination. He then went pre med and med school and is now at U of C Davis and some of the time at a clinic in southeast Asia. I recently got an e mail address for him from a mutual friend and Terry and I recently emailed each other. They were personal e mails so I don’t want to post them. I also do not know if anyone would remember him. Pat
June, 2010
Re: Unclaimed Property Being Held by the Illinois State Treasurer
Dear Classmates:
You or any of your family or friends who live in Illinois or have lived in Illinois may have cash or even other property being held by the Illinois State Treasurer. Thousands have money or other property (from safe deposit box contents, cash over or under $100 or stocks, bonds or mutual funds) being held by the Illinois State Treasurer and may know nothing about it. For example, last year when we were about to have our class reunion I checked for Lourdes Morris (now Laura Garrick) who lives in upstate New York to see if she had money being held by the Illinois State Treasurer. I found that she did and when she showed up at the reunion I told her about the money and how to claim it. Laura did follow up and made a claim, collected the money and was nice enough to remember me with a small fee (which I was pleasantly surprised to receive). Laura also now has given permission for me to disclose her name in writing this article.
If you want to check and see if you have any unclaimed property or money being held by the Illinois State Treasurer you may check and see if you have property or money being held by checking their web site at http://www.treasurer.state.il.gov. If you have property or money then you should be able to follow the procedures set forth in the web site on securing or collecting the money. If you learn of the property or money of a family member, then if the person is living, hopefully he or she can make his or her own claim. If you find money or property of a deceased family member or friend, if the deceased person had an estate in probate here in Illinois or elsewhere then they had a will (died testate) and the executor should be able to make a claim. If the person died without a will (died intestate) then the administrator of the estate should be able to make a claim. If the deceased person did not have an estate in probate then a small estate affidavit can be used to claim the money or property.
If the unclaimed property is under $100 or it is unknown and unclaimed property from a safe deposit box you may not want to bother with claiming it. If the unclaimed property is over $100 then it may be worthwhile to pursue. Since it may be only $101 and yet it could be over $1,000. It may even be worthwhile to hire an attorney to do a small estate affidavit or even to go through probate if the claim is more than $100,000.00 (probate in Illinois is required if the estate is over $100,000). If it turns out that the property is of a family member who is deceased and it is over $100.00 then you should consider hiring an attorney or at least talking to me or another attorney.
The unclaimed property or money being held by the Illinois State Treasurer is held indefinitely by the State and any money earned on that money inures to the benefit of the State and does not increase the money being held. The Illinois State Treasurer does administer the unclaimed property. However, other than publishing the names of new owners of unclaimed property twice per year the Illinois State Treasurer does not do much to return this money so check and see at the above web site whether the State is holding your property or money and, if so, act to claim it today.
If you have any questions about the above do not hesitate to call me during the day at 708-636-0070. If you call and I am in the office you should get me but if I am out of the office or on another telephone call you will end up in my voice mail. Good hunting!
Law Office of Patrick J. Urbut
3055 W. 111th Street, Ste 1N
Chicago, IL 60655
708-636-0070 (tel)
708-636-0086 (cell)
patjurb@AOL.com (e mail)
On the St. Ethelreda 2009 Reunion at the School:
| The event was held this past Saturday, October 24, 2009 and involved a reunion from 3PM to 8PM including a Mass in the basement which brought back memories of days before the new Church in 1953 when we were the first First Communion Class in the new church.
The entire school was open so I browsed through looking at the classrooms and marveled at how, although there were changes – like a computer room, most of the rooms appeared like they did 50 plus years ago. There were some changes though like a faculty lounge which I do not recall back in the days when we had almost all Mercy Sisters and only one lay teacher, Mrs. Cusick. The school now only has 187 students whereas we had a little over 600 and it was one of the smaller schools in the archdiocese in those days. The building has been maintained very well and was very clean. The Church is still there but the stained glass windows and the statues are all gone. It is now a Baptist Church and the Church also has the rectory. The convent is now a shelter for abused women which has been its function for many years. The turnout for the reunion was unfortunately poor, but everyone who did attend seemed to be enjoying the School, the faculty and staff (including 3 sisters from some order other than Mercy Sisters), Monsignor Ken Velo from the Big Shoulders Fund which helps fund and operate the school and who was the celebrant at the Mass and the handful of students that showed up (Benedictine University has a partnership with Big Shoulders in operating the school and has positions on the board and supplies student teachers and occasionally teachers for math and science classes in particular. I was the only person from our class but you may have an opportunity to go next year since they are talking about doing it again next year. It was a fundraiser and they sold St. Ethelreda shirts and greeting cards and other mememtos. I was not too surprised at the poor turnout because of the rescession and because there was nearly no publicity except for a posting in Classmates.com which, of course, may get seen by little or none of the alumni. I was told that the website of St. Ethelreda eventually should have photos posted and if you are interested in looking at the photos and at our alma mater today then go to http://www.stethelreda.org. I recommend that if any in our class are interested, contact the school so you can make a visit if you are going to be in the area – or next year perhaps come to the next reunion. Take care. Pat Urbut |