Stewart Dixon

Dixon, who lived in Lake Bluff, was a member of a blueblood North Shore family. His maternal grandfather, Silas Strawn, co-founded Winston & Strawn, and Dixon's father, Wesley Sr., was CEO of Container Corp. of America, later Stone Container. His brother Wesley Jr., who died in February at age 86, married into the Searle family and became vice chairman of the pharmaceutical firm, a Northern Trust director and chairman of the Art Institute of Chicago. Another relative, an uncle named Arthur, joined the fledgling Wildman Harrold in an “of counsel” capacity, Allen said, bringing in the Audit Bureau of Circulation, which became one of Stewart Dixon's mainstay clients. Another was Edward Hines Lumber Co. Mr. Dixon attended Hotchkiss School in Connecticut and then received a bachelor's degree in political science from Yale University in 1952. After a stint in the Army, he got a law degree from the University of Michigan. He worked for the law firm Kirkland & Ellis before striking out on his own in 1967 to start Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon. Wildman Harrold grew to more than 200 lawyers. But its middling size exposed it to industry consolidation pressure and partner defections. In 2011 it merged with Boston's Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge to form Edwards Wildman Palmer. The firm recently merged with Texas-based Locke Lord and now is known as Locke Lord Edwards. He is survived by his second wife, Ann Wilson Dixon; another son, John; a daughter, Romayne Dixon Thompson; a stepson, Theodore Grozier; a brother, Thomas; two stepbrothers, Arthur and Delafield Kribben; and nine grandchildren. Mr. Dixon's first wife, Romayne, died in 1993.