SPRINGFIELD – Thomas F. Sonneborn passed away on November 12, 2024 at home after a short struggle with cancer.

Tom was born in Springfield, Illinois, on July 14, 1950. He attended Springfield High School, graduating in 1968, and received a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana in 1972. Three years later in 1975 he graduated from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago with a Juris Doctor and began a legal career that spanned 49 years.

He first joined the Sangamon County States Attorneys' office as a prosecutor from 1975 to 1976, and thereafter entered private law practice, focusing on public sector labor relations. In 1988, he joined the FOP Labor Council, a police labor organization, spending the next 22 years representing its more than 10,000 members as its General Counsel, supervising its in-house staff of attorneys and providing representation to its members. In 2003, he was named a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, a national legal honor society for labor attorneys. After retirement from the Labor Council, Tom embarked on a 15-year career as an independent labor arbitrator and mediator. In 2024, he achieved the highest honor an arbitrator can achieve when he was selected as a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators, an organization of United States and Canadian neutrals whose membership numbers only around 500 between the two nations.

Tom was preceded in death by his mother, Ann Ciuffetelli. He is survived by his wife, Becky Dragoo of Springfield, Illinois, and his four children and seven grandchildren with Kathy Sonneborn of Springfield, Illinois: Amanda Sonneborn and her daughters, Sadie and Marin Sonneborn-Malecki of San Diego, Josh Sonneborn and his wife, Beth, and their daughter, Lexi of Ormand Beach Florida, Katie Kastner and her husband, Tyler and their children, Elin, Adeline, Oliver and Ellis of Middleton, Wisconsin, and Andy Sonneborn of Appleton, Wisconsin. Tom also is survived by his step-father and step-mother, Ray and Brenda Ciuffetelli, of Springfield, and half siblings, James, Donald, and Brenda Sonneborn, as well as his constant companion at home, his dog, Books.

Memorial visitation will be held on Monday, November 18, 2024, from 2-4 p.m. at Vancil-Murphy Funeral Home, 437 South Grand Avenue West, Springfield, Illinois.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to one of the organizations Tom supported, including the Animal Protective League of Springfield, Illinois, St. Jude's Children's Hospital, the Central Illinois Foodbank, the Salvation Army, or a charitable organization of your choosing.