Thomas Schippers, a circuit court judge in Illinois who worked as a journalist in Wisconsin during the 1980s, died Friday, Sept. 6, of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 59.
Schippers was born July 29, 1960, in Chicago to David and Jacquelin (Liautaud) Schippers. His father, who died Sept. 28, 2018, also of pancreatic cancer, served as the chief investigative counsel for U.S. House Republicans during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment.
After moving to the suburbs as a child, Schippers graduated from Glenbrook North High School. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English from Northern Michigan University in 1984.
Schippers’ first job out of college was as a newspaper reporter for the Tomah Journal, followed by a stint at the Chippewa Herald-Telegram in Chippewa Falls. He started at the Herald-Telegram as a reporter in 1986 and was assistant editor when he left in 1989 for Loyola University School of Law.
In 1993, he graduated and worked in private practice before taking a job as a Lake County prosecutor. Following a stint at a personal injury firm, Schippers’ father tapped him in 1998 to join the U.S. House’s investigative counsel’s office working on assembling the case for Clinton’s impeachment.
After Clinton’s acquittal by the U.S. Senate, Schippers returned to the Chicago area in 1999 and worked for the Illinois attorney general’s office. In 2007, he was appointed to be an associate judge in Lake County. He was reappointed in 2011 before being elected as a circuit judge in 2012.
Schippers is survived by his wife, Carol (Chartier) Schippers; three children, Alison, Thomas and Scott; and three grandchildren, Tommy, Henry and Theo. He also is survived by his nine siblings, Kathleen, David, Tiyi, Ann, Colleen, Kevin, Mary, Patrick and Peter.
