Longtime Kane County judge Donald Anderson, one of last justices of peace

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Former 16th Circuit Court Judge Donald Anderson of Elgin, in foreground, is shown listening to a speech at the Elgin VFW Post in Elgin in this 2005 photo. Anderson died Friday. He was 81. | Sun-Times Media File Photo

Updated: September 29, 2011 12:27AM

Judge Donald T. Anderson was famous for being heavily involved in Republican politics, active in civic and fraternal groups and for becoming a judge 25 years before he became a lawyer.

The lifelong Elgin resident died Friday at age 81.

When he retired from the Kane County bench in 1984 after 27 years, only one other judge remained in all of Illinois who had become a judge before becoming a lawyer. They accomplished this now legally impossible feat because they had started as some of the last “justices of the peace” — people chosen in local elections to judge minor cases in local courtrooms.

A 1947 graduate of Elgin High School, Mr. Anderson won an election for justice of the peace in 1957, at age 27. He was re-elected in 1961.

In 1964, a change in state law reclassified justices of the peace as “police magistrates.” In 1970, he was appointed an associate judge in the 16th Judicial Circuit, which covers Kane, DeKalb and Kendall counties.

He did finally catch up with his official legal education, too. After graduating from Elgin Community College and then Northern Illinois University, he received a law degree from John Marshall Law School in 1981, three years before he retired.

Before and after retirement, Mr. Anderson was active in GOP politics. His family describes him as ”the driving force” behind the John Ericsson Republican League of Illinois for 50 years.

In 1992, he ran for the Illinois State Senate seat being vacated by John Friedland but later withdrew from that race, which eventually was won by Steve Rauschenberger.

He also was a longtime member of the Medinah Shrine Club, VFW Post 1307, American Legion Post 2910, Moose Club 799, Elks Club 737, the Riverside Club and Elgin Country Club. In 1990, he was president of the Elgin United Civic Association, an umbrella organization representing numerous other civic groups for lobbying and charity purposes.

When he retired from the bench at age 55, Mr. Anderson told a reporter that “the longer you are [a judge], you have a tendency to make more people mad. But if two people are walking out of the courtroom after a civil matter and both of them are mad at you, you must be doing your job.”

Commemorating Mr Anderson’s 80th birthday in 2009 at a Republican banquet, then-Kane County State’s Attorney John Barsanti said that “this man is about loyalty. There is only one reason to run for office, and that is good government. Don’t ever take a shingle off another man’s roof.”

He is survived by his wife, Nancy, and a son, Scott R. Anderson-Johnson of Rockford.

Memorial contributions can be made to First United Methodist Church of Elgin or Medinah Shriners Hospitals for Children.