Robert Todd Vieregg

Robert Todd Vieregg, of Northbrook, Ill., died on Dec. 11, 2025. Todd was born in 1934 and raised in Woodstock. After he graduated from Michigan State University in 1955, he and his parents opened a restaurant in Woodstock, which his parents operated until their retirement in 1971. 

Todd entered the U.S. Navy in 1956, attaining the rank of lieutenant, and became a carrier-based jet fighter pilot, primarily flying FJ-3D aircraft. He served aboard the USS Lexington during its 1958 Western Pacific cruise. Todd was one of only a very few pilots qualified to deliver and independently detonate the Regulus 1 guided missile, which carried a 50-kiloton nuclear warhead. He was very happy that he never had to deliver and detonate one. After his Naval career, Todd managed restaurants in Washington, D.C., and Chicago. He owned and operated the Concord Inn restaurant in Glenview, Ill., from 1963 until he sold it in 1965.

Todd entered Northwestern University School of Law in 1967, graduating with his J.D. cum laude in January 1970, and joined the Chicago law firm of Sidley & Austin (now Sidley Austin LLP). Todd became a full partner in 1973 and served as senior counsel in Sidley’s Corporate and Securities Group, serving major corporate clients in their securities, mergers and acquisitions, and holding company matters until his 1999 retirement. 

Beyond his legal practice, Todd was deeply engaged in the Chicago community. He served on the Board of Directors of the Lyric Opera Guild Board, the Union League Club of Chicago, and the Glen View Club in Golf, Ill. While serving as a director of Glen View Club, Todd worked extensively on the founding of the Glen View Scholarship Foundation, which provides much-needed educational scholarships to employees of Glen View Club and their families. Todd also served as an elected, and then appointed, member of the Board of Education of West Northfield School District 31. Todd became a Mason and a perpetual member of St. Mark’s Lodge No. 63, Woodstock, in 1956. 

Both during and after his legal career, Todd hunted upland game birds, deer, and waterfowl, and he was an avid golfer, fly fisherman, scuba diver, and skier. He especially enjoyed skiing with his family on regular visits to the family’s apartment in Aspen, which he bought in 1975. After Todd retired, he took up mountain climbing and was proud to have climbed to the summits of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Elbrus, the highest points in continental Africa and Europe, respectively. He trekked to Everest Base Camp and participated in other mountain-climbing expeditions in Asia, South America, the Alps, and the United States, and visited the lava lake at the Erta Ale volcano in Ethiopia.

Todd lived a full and vibrant life, enjoying experiences as an adventurer who chose risks over limits in his activities and in his careers. He survived several near-death experiences, about which he wrote in his unfinished memoirs. A few weeks before his 82nd birthday, Todd made his first and only parachute jump. Throughout his life, Todd respected, was in awe of, and engaged with the natural wonders of planet Earth, as he experienced them as an aviator, mountaineer, hunter, scuba diver and world traveler.

Todd and his wife, Cari, had a rich cultural life. Todd loved poetry, especially poems by A.E. Housman, and was one of the few American members of The Housman Society. The couple have been avid patrons of opera, theater, ballet and musical organizations and enjoyed many good times at formal parties, especially on New Year’s Eves, in elegant venues around the world. They traveled to more than 70 countries, frequently to places seldom visited by others, such as North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Myanmar, Mongolia, and Siberia. And they overnighted on all seven continents and in all 50 United States. They also golfed together at many venues, including those in Scotland, Ireland and the UK. 

Todd’s first marriage, to Darla Ax, ended in divorce in 1983 after 23 years. He married Carilane Newman in 1985, and she, his children, Dorian V. Holloway (John) and Robert Todd Vieregg II (Amy), and five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren survive him. Todd’s brother, Walter Vieregg (BJ) and three nephews and one niece also survive him. He was preceded in death by his parents, Robert and Mae Vieregg (Woodstock), and a brother, Richard Vieregg. Todd will be greatly missed by his wife, family, and the many friends he leaves behind.

Todd always tried to do the right thing. Bravo Zulu, Todd! 

A memorial service for Todd will be held at 3:30 pm on Friday, May 29, 2026, at Kenilworth Union Church (Zoom Available), 211 Kenilworth Ave., Kenilworth, Ill. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that tribute donations may be made to Cure PSP, 325 Hudson St., 4th Floor, New York, NY 10013, or to Glen View Scholarship Foundation, 100 Golf Road, Golf, IL 60029-0309.