Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 1-22

22 CHICAGO SECTION1 OBITUARIES Born to a working-class family, Loretto Corfmannev- er had the opportunity to graduate from college. But over a 60-year career working for organizations like the United Negro College Fund and all-women Mundelein College, she tried to turn her loss into many gains. Her conflicted emotions about working on the Manhattan led to the U.S. dropping two atomic shaped her life similarly when, after World War II, she married a conscientious objector. She raised two children with her husband, while also working and volunteering for groups including Misericordia Homeand the Altar and Rosary Societyof St.

Henry Catholic Church in Chicago. very much believed in practicing what she be- said Tom Corfman, adding that his devout Catholic faith contributed to her social and political awareness. did not see religion as confined to going to church on Sunday to being active in the church or school Mrs. Corfman, 95, of Rogers Park neigh- borhood died of breast and colon cancer in a Skokie hospice Monday, Aug. 24, 10 years after her retirement from a long career as an administrative assistant.

She began that profession with a secretarial degree, after which she worked for Fredric Flader, an engineer contracted to work on the top-secret project to build the atomic bomb. One of her responsibilities was to take coded dictation from the Los Alamosteam, which required her to count the carbon paper she used before and after her shift, then incinerate the pages in a furnace under the watchful eye of a guard. And though she knew of her secrecy, she joked with men at the front desk that they too much Dick when they gossiped about the project, her son said. It was later she learned of the grim the hundreds of thousands killed when atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Though she proudly served the war effort, the deaths disturbed her.

think it radicalized my her son said. thought the bomb was a terrible thing and was deeply regretful about After the war, she worked at the United Negro College Fund assisting in two fund- raisers in 1947 and 1948. There she met her husband, Rex. Before their 1989 divorce, they had two children. my parents, they felt very strongly about civil said her son, a former Chicago Tribune reporter.

Martin Luther King campaign in Chicago, I remember them dragging me along to a couple different events, including the big rally that was held at the old Soldier Neither Mrs. Corfman nor her husband, who died in 1998, were African-American, but their son remembers many talks about the pace of the civil rights movement. father had more of a passionate view toward things. My mother more of an intellectual he said. was always very Former employer Charlene Endecavagesaid she heard stories of a young Mrs.

Corfman watching on TV reports of riots during the Democratic National Convention in 1968. saw it on TV, packed up her kids and took them Endecavage said. was locking their In her secretarial work and in life, Mrs. Corfman, was known for her feisty intelligence and almost superhuman organization. always appreciate a person who can come in and make you look better than you are.

She was that type of said Connie Knapp, the former Mundelein College dean of students whom Mrs. Corfman assisted in the late 1970s. Endecavage, president of now-closed Montay College, said Mrs. her out a 20-year-old for ajob as her secretary. And though Mrs.

Corfman touched many lives, her son said she regretted the university degree her humble circumstances denied her. think going to was a disappointment in her he said. a lot of respects, I think that my mother, if she had been given the opportunity that men had been given, would have accomplished a lot Mrs. Corfman also is survived by a daughter, Regina, and two grandchildren. Mass will be said at 10 a.m.

Monday in St. HenryCatho- lic Church, 6335 N. Hoyne LORETTO CORFMAN 1913-2009 Manhattan Project aide, social activist By Georgia Garvey TRIBUNE REPORTER Loretto Corfman lived her Catholic beliefs, her son said. Although he did not begin his career as a firefighter, Terrence E. Dekafell in love with the field once he entered it in his 30s, and he eventually became Wood fire chief before retiring in 1987.

called it an his wife of 48 years, Rosemary, said with a laugh. really what it is. You make your first fire call, and just addicted to the Mr. Deka, 73, a Wood Dale resident for more than 45 years, died Sunday, Aug. 16, at home of a heart attack.

Mr. Deka was born on Northwest Side, grew up in Elmwood Park and graduated in 1954 from Fenwick High Schoolin Oak Park. After high school, he began working as ageneral contractor. He also attended the University of Navy Pier campusin the evenings, eventually getting a degree in electronics engineering, his wife said. He and his wife married in 1961.

In the early years of their marriage, his work in computer processing for System Development Corp. took him all over the country, including California and New York, she said. In January 1964, Mr. Deka and his wife moved into a house the couple had built in Wood Dale. From 1964 to 1968, Mr.

Deka worked for Motorola until leaving to start his own electronics firm. Also in 1968, he became a volunteer firefighter in Wood Dale. From 1970 to 1972, when Wood Dale switched from a village form of government to a city form, Mr. Deka also served as a Wood Dale alderman, his wife said. was instrumental in getting the referendum passed to fund the first fire station in she said.

Mr. Deka made a formal career change in 1972, when he was one of the first four full-time firefighters hired by Wood Dale, said his son Dan. He was promoted to deputy fire chief in 1981. was very proud of being promoted to the highest earned rank in the fire his wife said. are appointed.

But to become a deputy, you have to earn For a time, Mr. Deka was board president of the Illinois Fire Prevention Association, and he established the Wood Dale Fire Prevention Bureau, his wife said. liked the fire-science end of it, and he particularly liked the fire-prevention she said. would go around to businesses in town and give fire-safety After Mr. Deka retired on disability in 1987, he worked as the general manager of a Schiller Park scrap metal company until 1999.

In 2000, he took a part-time position with the U.S. Census Bureau, seeking to get information from households that did not respond to mailed inquiries, his son said. Mr. Deka worked for the Census Bureau until his death. brain never stopped his wife said.

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Deka is survived by another son, Robert; two daughters, Patricia Kos- machand Kathryn; a sister, Jeanine Deka; and seven grandchildren. Services have been held. TERRENCE E. DEKA 1936-2009 Ex-fire official in Wood Dale Retired deputy chief had fallen in love with job By Bob Goldsborough SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE Deka During the 1950s, Patrick Joseph McCarthyhelped Catholic organizations improve direct-mail fundraising efforts by combing registration records and selecting names he thought likely to be members of the religion who owned expensive cars.

Alongtime Chicago-area public relations executive from Darien, Mr. McCarthy, 93, died of natural causes Wednesday, Aug. 26, in Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, said his son, Patrick Jr. Mr. McCarthy opened PJ McCarthy Associatesin over the years his clients included Catholic Charities of Chicago, St.

Jude Research Hospi- taland its fundraising arm, American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities. In the pre-computer days, putting together lists of people to hit up for donations was especially laborious work. Mr. McCarthy found ways to cut costs for his clients by culling mailing lists so that material went out to those most likely to donate. For Catholic groups, he would focus on Italian, Irish and Polish last names, given the large Catholic populations in those communities.

For clients like St. he sweetened the deal with a sweepstakes, which got better responses and through which he could sharpen the target of his direct mailings. Raised in Back of the Yards neighborhood, Mr. McCarthy graduated from Tilden High School. He was on the school paper and won a scholarship to study journalism at Northwestern University, but he still have enough money to attend.

Instead, he started handling publicity for local golf tournaments, then went to work for a public relations firm. He was waiting for a streetcar when an automobile being chased by police struck him, and the resulting injuries kept him out of the service in World War II. He instead worked in a war plant and returned to the PR business when the fighting was over. Mr. McCarthy kept working until about 10 years ago.

One of his first big clients was Carson Pirie Scott, and he later did work for politicians, including former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon. In the 1980s, he developed the National Catholic Donor Name Bankby collecting mailing lists from Catholic charities and cleansing them of addresses and the like. Working primarily for charities, he never had any apologies about being in what some call the business, his son said.

figured if you like it, throw it he said. Mr. McCarthy also is survived by his wife, Eileen; two daughters, Kathleen DiCola and Megan Schroeder; two sisters, Mary Joanne Mathieu; and five grandchildren. Services were held. PATRICK JOSEPH MCCARTHY 1915-2009 PR executive aided charities Innovative ideas helped direct-mail fundraising efforts By Trevor Jensen TRIBUNE REPORTER Patrick Joseph McCarthy opened his public relations firm in 1951.

On Aug. 31, 1887 Edison received a patent for his Kinetoscope, a device that produced moving pictures. In 1954 Hurricane Carol hit the northeastern Atlantic states. (Connecticut, Rhode Island and part of Massachusetts bore the brunt of the storm, which resulted in nearly 70 deaths.) In 1972, at the Munich Summer Olympics, American swimmer Mark Spitz won his fourth and fifth gold medals, in the 100-meter butterfly and 800-meter freestyle relay. In 1986 82 people were killed when an Aeromexico jetliner and a small private plane collided over Cerritos, Calif.

Also in 1986 the Soviet passenger ship Admiral Nakhimov collided with a merchant vessel in the Black Sea, causing both vessels to sink; up to 448 people reportedly died. In 1995 at the O.J. Simpson trial in Los Angeles, Judge Lance Ito ruled the defense could play only two examples of police detective Mark racist comments from taped conversations with a screenwriter. In 2005 about 1,000 people were killed when a religious procession across a Baghdad bridge was engulfed in panic over rumors of a suicide bomber. ALMANAC In 2002, vibraphone virtuoso Lionel Hampton died in New York; he was 94.

TRIBUNE PHOTO 1977 Richard Egan, who rose from street kid to the U.S. ambassador to Ireland after making millions of dollars founding data storage giant EMC has died. He was 73. Mr. Egan, diagnosed with cancer in May, died at his Boston home, his family said in a statement Friday night.

is a great loss for our family, and we are terribly the family said. Mr. Egan was an electrical engineer and a former U.S. Marine Corps helicopter pilot who worked at Lockheed Martin, Honeywell and Intel before he co-founded data storage technology provider EMC in 1979. He sold most of his shares during the tech boom, shortly before the bubble burst.

The self-made billionaire, who raised seed money for his business by selling office furniture, was a key fundraiser for the Republican Party and former President George W. Bush. He stepped down as EMC chairman in January 2001, months before Bush nominated him to be the U.S. ambassador to Ireland. Mr.

Egan, who earned a from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was part of the MIT team that developed the Apollo Guidance Computer, which provided real-time control for the spacecraft that carried astronauts to the moon. RICHARD EGAN 1936-2009 Self-made billionaire, ambassador to Ireland ASSOCIATED PRESS Post your condolences online With the partnership with Legacy.com, log in to the website and write your comments on the obituaries printed in the paper. Placing a paid death notice These are placed through our classified advertising department and may run for as many days as the family wishes. The Tribune must contact a licensed funeral director or cremator to verify death. To place an ad, call 312-222-2222 between 8 a.m.

to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. You can also fax or email, 8 a.m.

to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Fax: 312-222-4014 E-mail: Non-paid news obituaries These are written by the Chicago Tribune staff. The Tribune publishes obituaries for people from all walks of who have made major contributions to the community are often a priority, but we also consider those who have made a difference in smaller ways.

For consideration of a news obituary, call 312-222-5934 or 312-222-3540, or fax 312-644-9892. Obituaries are stories about life. They tell us about our neighbors and our world. They can be exhilarating, uplifting, entertaining or just plain interesting. Product: CTMAIN PubDate: 08-31-2009 Zone: ALL Edition: HD Page: 1-22 User: cci Time: Color:.