The Journey to Graduation Day: John Pyne, ’14, Making Dad proud
John Pyne will always remember the day in July of 2012 when he checked his email and found an acceptance letter to the Law School. He was on a family vacation in Wisconsin, and when he shared the news, his dad, mom, and girlfriend all cried tears of joy.
Dad’s reaction is especially vivid in John’s memory, because soon after he was diagnosed with cancer; he died on July 9, 2013. Now, as John graduates, he knows how proud he made his father.
“He spent his whole life working so hard to get me there,” John said of his dad, Daniel Pyne. “He liked hearing about my classes and was so proud I was going here.”
John, who is 25, transferred into the Law School for his 2L year. He was challenged at his previous law school, but this was a whole new level, he said. “It was daunting coming into an environment like this. Every professor is a genius. I didn’t know how it was going to be.”
The transition was going OK until two weeks before autumn quarter exams, when John’s dad was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and told he might have just two weeks to live. John rushed to his father’s side and emailed Dean of Students Amy Gardner to let her know that he might need some flexibility with his exam schedule. Gardner told him to put his family first and figure out his school responsibilities later, a directive John both heeded and appreciated. Later that day, John picked up a call from an unknown number on his cell phone; it was Dean Michael Schill, “telling me to spend as much time with my family as I needed, and to know my Law School family was there to support me,” John said. “I’ll always appreciate that.”
John’s dad beat his doctor’s initial prognosis, so John spent much of his 2L year balancing schoolwork and time with his father. “Do you do your income tax reading or do you go with your dad to chemo?” John said. “I’d typically decide the latter.”
But what his dad wouldn’t tolerate was any talk of him taking a break from law school. So John kept up his studies while visiting his father nearly every day, either at the cancer center in Maywood or the family home in Elmhurst, both west of Chicago.
When John was at the Law School, he found a small measure of relief. He compartmentalized his school life separately from his personal life, which turned out to be a valuable coping mechanism. “I could come here and be myself and go about my day. That was nice, to shut it off for a little bit.”
John was at the Law School for just two years, but he made his mark. He served as a team lead in the Corporate Lab, guiding other students in work for clients that included legal research, memo-writing, contract review, and other tasks. He also taught a writing seminar to undergraduates across the Midway.
After John earned his degree in business from Illinois State University, he thought he wouldn’t ever feel like attending a long graduation ceremony ever again, he said. But after two trying but rewarding years, he’s thrilled to walk across the stage on June 14 to receive his JD. And in October, he’ll join the corporate group at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in Chicago. Dad would have been proud of that, too.