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Obituary: Jeffery M. Weir

August 3, 1937 ~ September 6, 2022

Jeffery Maxfield (Jeff) Weir, died the morning of September 6, 2022 at age of 85, at St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  Born on August 3, 1937, in Milwaukee, WI to Joseph Herman Weir and Velma (Coffiman) Weir. Named after early 20th century writer, Jeffery Farnol and artist, Maxfield Parrish.
 

Jeff was orphaned at age 9 and raised with then 17 year-old brother, Richard J. Weir by their grandmother, Martha Candace Weir, then age 74. He lived at times with one or more families. At age twelve, he took on his first paper route in Milwaukee, and the next year became a “Corner Boy ” selling newspapers on East Wisconsin Avenue in the downtown. By 10th grade Jeff attended 10 different schools, one of them three different times. He graduated from Wauwatosa (now Wauwatosa East) High School in 1955.
 

After two years at UW – Madison, and a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity, having no major, Jeff served in the U.S. Army during the Cold War, stationed with the 24th Infantry Division in Munich, Germany for over two years. He finished active-duty service in the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C. and honorably discharged from Army Reserves in 1964.  December 22, 1961, Jeff married Margaret (Maggie) Stockdale Marshall in Downers Grove, IL.
 

Following graduation from UW – Madison in 1962, he worked for the summer on a construction gang on the San Francisco to Oakland (Bay) Bridge while Maggie attended the University of CA-Berkley. Afterward, he worked as a claim adjuster and investigator for an insurance company in Milwaukee. Then Jeff attended Marquette University Law School while working part-time at various jobs, including being a Junior Systems Analyst.
 

For the first five plus years after graduation from law school, Jeff was a Special Agent of the FBI, serving in the Dallas Office, the San Angelo, TX Resident Agency, and then four years in Washington, D.C. Field Office. A relief supervisor on the General Crimes Squad, he also filled in as night supervisor in charge of the Washington Field Office. He received a number of citations for his work, including four personal letters of commendation from then director, J. Edgar Hoover. Jeff was a member of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI.
 

In 1971, Jeff and his family moved to Door County where his youngest children were born. For over twenty-five years he practiced law in Door County, the last twenty-two as a principal in the Pinkert Law Firm. He was a former City Attorney for Sturgeon Bay and City Attorney for Algoma, as well as the attorney for numerous other municipalities, school districts, several banks and was also a trial attorney. Jeff was a long-time Door County Court Commissioner and a past president of the Door-Kewaunee Bar Association.
 

As directors and a host family of the WI Children’s Program of Northern Ireland for sixteen years, during the upset in Northern Ireland in the 1980’s and 1990’s Jeff and Maggie made several trips to chaperone about thirty children from Belfast area to Door County and other parts of northeastern Wisconsin for six weeks in the Summer.


In 1987, along with Maggie and others, Jeff became involved in running the Northeast Wisconsin Leader Dog Puppy Project. They raised a six week-old pup each year for one year and then returned it to Leader Dog School for the Blind. They raised their 30th dog two years ago.

In 2003, he wrote and published a well-received novel, Winding River, about the first year in practice of a small-town lawyer in northern Wisconsin.  At age 51, Jeff and Maggie took up downhill skiing, and for many years, he and Maggie owned a second home on Powderhorn Ski Hill in Bessemer, MI in the U.P., where they entertained relatives and friends during the ski seasons. 

Jeff was involved in many other Door County organizations – a director of the First National Bank of Sturgeon Bay, and after it was sold to Associated Bank, a seventeen year member of the Advisory Board of Associated Bank-Door County; a past president of the Southern Door People Involved in Education; an organizer and director of the Southern Door Education Foundation; a thirty-year member and twice president of the Forestville-Maplewood Lions Club; a director of the Door County Community Foundation; a director of the Door County Historical Society and a volunteer at the Door County Triathlon and Fall 50.

Throughout his life he preferred work to hobbies, sports, and other interests. Although retired from general law practice at age 60, he remained a member of the WI Bar Association, practicing for family interests and nonprofit organizations. Mainly, he worked as a private investor and an acquirer and manager of commercial real estate properties in Northern WI and the U.P. of Michigan.  Jeff was also a past member of MENSA.
 

A brother, Richard Weir; daughter, Kerry (Weir) Steffan; and son-in-law, Troy Rass preceded him in death. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Maggie; son, Kyle Weir (Angie Stiesma), and their children Izzy and Lily of Minneapolis; daughter, Katy Rass (Christiaan Jeanquart) of Sturgeon Bay and her children Cody, (fiancé, Kelsey Heim) of Sturgeon Bay, Cameron, (partner, Emmanuel Oliveras) of Barcelona, Spain, Autumn (special friend, Caleb Nelson) and Caleb Rass of Sturgeon Bay; son-in-law, Dr. Shawn Steffan, and his children Nadia and Elliot Steffan of Madison, WI.
 

At the decedent’s request, there will be no funeral services.  He was always thankful for the many people who helped him throughout his lifetime. Special thank you to friend Mary Gilbert for her assistance in recent years.  Also, special thanks to the staff at St. Vincent Hospital and to Unity Hospice.  (Jeff wrote the above, except for the updates.)