Longtime attorney Ehrmann dead at 62

Friends remember a tough lawyer, warm, funny man

DIXON – Rolfe Ehrmann, a longtime local attorney and co-founder of Dixon law firm Ehrmann, Gelbach, Badger and Lee, was known for a lot of things.

He never shied away from high-profile cases.

He stayed involved in his community, and served on many boards throughout Lee County.

What many of his friends remember most of all, though, was his laugh.

“He had the silliest laugh,” Lee County Sheriff John Varga said Wednesday. “You knew he was in the room, because his laugh would just echo throughout the room.”

Ehrmann, 62, died sometime Tuesday night or early Wednesday in his Dixon home.

He had children, and was married to Lee County Circuit Clerk Denise McCaffrey-Ehrmann.

Ehrmann and Gary Gelbach founded their law firm in 1982.

Ehrmann got his law degree from DePaul University College of Law and was a law clerk for the presiding justice of the Fifth District Appellate Court.

He was a member of the American, Illinois and Lee County bar associations and was admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1980.

Ehrmann practiced family law, criminal law, appeals and general trial litigation. Among the thousands of cases he handled, he represented Charles Bickerstaff, a retired Boy Scout executive who is serving 80 years in prison for sexually abusing a 16-year-old Boy Scout several years ago.

in 2007, he successfully argued a case before the state Supreme Court regarding parental versus grandparents’ rights.

Law partner Doug Lee said Ehrmann handled his cases, no matter what they were, beautifully.

Tough in the courtroom, he also had a good sense of humor, Lee said.

“No matter what, he always had a sense of humor,” Lee said. “He was always making people laugh.”

Varga knew Ehrmann many years and considered him a family friend. In fact, Ehrmann taught Catholic education classes at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, and was Varga’s catechism teacher.

“Sad doesn’t even quite get it,” Varga said of Ehrmann’s death.

At the time of his death, Ehrmann was chairman of the Lee County Sheriff’s Merit Commission and a Lee County Council on Aging board member. He was past president of the Lee County Bar Association and the Dixon Rotary Club, former chairman of the Lee County Board of Health, and once was Amboy’s city attorney.