Assessor’s legislative assistant was also formidable cook, marathoner

• Reprints

John Fallon

Article Extras

Updated: February 14, 2012 8:11AM

John Fallon managed to run — and finish — the Chicago marathon after battling lymphoma, lupus and Crohn’s disease.

A fighter to the end, he received his final wish: to make it to the end of 2011 in order to spend one last Christmas with his family. “He cooked a turkey dinner for us,” said his sister, Erin Murphy. “He decorated the whole house, inside and out.”

Mr. Fallon, 42, died Wednesday at Rush University Medical Center.

He had been former Assessor Jim Houlihan’s secret weapon for negotiating, lobbying and cajoling members of the Cook County Board and staffers at City Hall.

With his good humor, intense blue eyes, and the baked cookies, cupcakes, scones and Irish soda bread he made by hand, Mr. Fallon was a formidable legislative assistant in that he charmed people instead of steamrolling them, Houlihan said. “He became the go-to person for all the commissioners.” Unfortunately, his culinary skills were such that he left the County Building a little heftier than when he arrived.

“He would say ‘[Cook County] Commissioner Silvestri’s office thought that they had a better idea than we had,’ ” Houlihan said. “And of course, I’d think they were talking about a tax policy.”

“They think,” Mr. Fallon would explain, “these blueberries are much better.”

“I think I took on 20 pounds,” Houlihan said.

Mr. Fallon grew up in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood near 103rd and Kedzie. He attended St. John Fisher grade school and achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. He graduated from Marist High School, where he was on the wrestling team. He was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity at Northern Illinois University.

He landed a job at the assessor’s office, where his late father, Jack, had worked when it was headed by Thomas C. Hynes.

When he was about 31, Mr. Fallon was so stirred by a performance of the Shannon Rovers bagpipe band that he began taking lessons, said his teacher, Bill McTighe, a piper with the group that leads the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. Mr. Fallon learned all the traditional Irish airs — “The Wearing of the Green,” “Dawning of the Day,” “O’Donnell Abu,” and “Garryowen,” a favorite of General Custer’s and part of the soundtrack for the film “The Quiet Man.”

In 2004, Mr. Fallon was diagnosed with lymphoma. He fought it three times. During those battles, he found out he had lupus and Crohn’s disease.

Still, he finished the Chicago Marathon in 2008. He tried again in 2010, but had to drop out around Mile 6.

“No matter how sick John was, he was there to play,” said Brian Giblin, band manager for the Shannon Rovers. On St. Patrick’s Day, when the Rovers are busier than an accountant on April 15, “We would all look to him for inspiration,” Giblin said. “He would just keep going.”

“Any day that he felt good,” his sister said, “he was out running or doing something. Never once did he say ‘Why me?’ Not ever. ‘In a way,’ he said, ‘It’s a blessing.’ He said, ‘You appreciate everything so much more.’ ”

Mr. Fallon was active with the Young Irish Fellowship Club. He did the Polar Plunge in Chicago — fully clothed, while playing the bagpipes — for the Special Olympics, Houlihan said.

He had a sailboat, “Nowhere Quick,” and an Old Town apartment filled with political buttons and Irish memorabilia. His dog Rover, an Olde English-American Bulldog mix, was “his pride and joy,” his sister said.

More than 600 attended a fund-raiser for Mr. Fallon last April at the Irish American Heritage Center. “The hall was filled with people who were there who had been motivated [by John],’’ Houlihan said. “Support groups, pipers, friends from the office. John taught us a great deal about how to live with class and how to face death with pride.”

In addition to his sister, Mr. Fallon is survived by his mother, Carolyn, and a niece and two nephews. Visitation will be from 2 to 9 p.m. Friday at Blake Lamb Funeral Home, 4727 W. 103rd St., Oak Lawn. A funeral mass will be said at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at St. John Fisher Church, 10234 S. Washtenaw. Burial is to follow at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.

Just as he wished, Mr. Fallon will be buried in his Shannon Rovers kilt.