Peter John Foote

1933-2015

In Memoriam

Peter Foote, 82, passed away August 25th, 2015.

Chicago, IL August 27, 2015: Peter John Foote, the former Director of Communications and press secretary for the Archdiocese of Chicago, and retired Director of the Calumet Area Industrial Commission, passed away at home this week, after a struggle with pulmonary fibrosis. From 1959 to 1984, Peter Foote worked for the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, first in the Diocese’ Catholic Action Federation, where he conducted social action training courses, taught at Chicago’s Mundelein Seminary, edited a quarterly magazine, Apostolate, and helped establish the world’s largest diaconate training program. He participated in the Selma to Montgomery march for civil rights in 1965, after helping organizing transport to Alabama for Catholic laypersons and Chicago religious.

He was active prior to and during the 2nd Vatican council (1962-1965) in creating responses to the shortage of priests and nuns, by helping to encourage and sustain what came to be known as the “the lay apostolate movement”. In 1968-1969 he co-authored a 4 volume series of commentaries on Vatican II’s decrees on the Apostolate of the Laity and on the constitution on the Catholic Church in the modern world.

He also served with his late wife Elizabeth as National chair-couple for the Catholic Family Movement (CFM) in 1966-1967. Peter and Betty were both active in the Young Christian Workers (YCW) Group. From 1973-1976 Peter was Associate Director of the Office for Marriage and Family Life. He worked on inter-faith and laity issues as the diocese Secretary for Human Relations, Ecumenism and the Lay Apostolate (1976-1979). Peter received the City of Chicago’s Thomas and Eleanor Wright Award in 1978 from Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic, and he received the B’nai Brith Award in Chicago for his work in inter-faith human relations.

From 1979 to 1984, he worked as the Director of Communications and Press Secretary for Cardinal John Cody (1979–1982) and for Cardinal Joseph Bernardin (1982–1984). As spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Chicago, he helped facilitate the extensive world-wide coverage of Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to six Chicago sites in 1979, accrediting 1,800 media representatives, and supporting over a million guests watching Pope John Paul ll speak in Chicago’s Grant Park, about unity and evangelization. Peter represented the Archdiocese to governmental, human relations, interfaith bodies, and ecumenical, civil rights, civic, media and editorial boards.

Beginning in 1992, Peter lead the Calumet Area Industrial Commission, serving industrial and transportation business members and suppliers in Chicago’s south side and south suburbs, from 1992 until retiring, growing the commissions membership, and helping member businesses to resolve issues with their cities, and to secure training, development and expansion resources.

Peter grew up in Chicago’s southeast side and attended St. Ignatius College Prep (high school) and Loyola University in Chicago. While in high school, he was elected city-wide president of the Inter Student Catholic Action Organization (CISCA), and later received their Cardinal Meyer Award for his CISCA leadership. In 1953-1956, during the Korean War, he was awarded a Certificate of Merit for his work , in Okinawa, Japan, as a Communications Intelligence Chief for the Army Security Agency Far East, managing round-the-clock radio interception and cryptographic teams. He returned to Chicago after Army service, and built & sold homes from 1956-1958 on Chicago’s SE side with his father under the business name Buffalo Builders. He also worked as a public relations media services manager, as a New York Life insurance Agent, and as an independent insurance provider.

Peter was an active member of St. Barnabas Parish and Chicago’s Beverly writer’s group, in the neighborhood, where he lived for 45 years. Peter was preceded in death by his beloved wife Elizabeth Anne (nee Glynn), by his parents, Peter & Helen, by his brother Edmund and sister Angela, and by his brothers-in-law Thomas (Nannette) and William Glynn, and by his sister in law Mary Quinn.

He was loving father to Peter James (Anna Rentmeesters), John, Mary Elizabeth (Michael) Fasano, Anne (Patrick) Devane, Catherine Marie, & Loretta (Timothy) Casey, and fond Grandfather to Michael, Meghan, Maria, Peter, Elizabeth and J.P. Uncle to many nieces and nephews, he is survived by his sisters Mary Helen (William) Sheahan; Ann Jane (the late Ronald) Axium, Irene Mary, Rosemary, Laura (the late Stephen) Meyer, and Sarah Therese (the late George) Sparks, by his brothers-in-law Neil (Joyce) and Brian (Marybeth) Glynn, the late Thomas (Nannette) and William Glynn, and by his sisters in law Jeanne (Thomas) Stevens and the late Mary Quinn.

Visitation Sunday August 30th from 3PM to 8PM, at Blake Lamb Funeral Home, 708-636-1193, 4727 West 103rd Street, Oak Lawn, Il.

A funeral mass will be offered on Monday, 10AM at St. Barnabas Catholic Church, 10134 S. Longwood Drive, Chicago, with interment at Mt. Olivet Cemetery In lieu of flowers, offerings can be made to the Aquinas Literacy Center, where Peter and Betty tutored for many years, www.aquinasliteracycenter.org, 773-927-0512, 3540 S. Hermitage Ave, Chicago, IL 60609

Or to

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago www.catholiccharities.net, 312-655-7525, email: [email protected], 721 N. LaSalle, Chicago, IL 60654

Or to

Saint Ignatius College Prep, www.ignatius.org, 312.421.5900, 1076 West Roosevelt Road • Chicago, Illinois 60608.