Dolores Schaller Obituary

Schaller, Dolores Riley

Dolores Riley Schaller of Northbrook passed away on January 14, 2023. She was 95.

Born on July 2, 1927, to William and Anna (Carbery) Riley, Dolores was raised in Joliet with her late brother James Riley, her late sister Geraldine McMaster, and her brother William Riley before moving with her family to the South Side of Chicago. There she met and married George J. Schaller, whose family founded and ran Schaller's Pump, and who himself went on to become a Circuit Court Judge in Cook County.

Together Dolores and George built an extraordinary life in Chicago. During their marriage, they had seven children, whom they raised in Beverly and eventually Riverside. When her children finished college, Dolores decided to do the same – in her 50s – graduating with honors from George Williams College. Never a spectator in life, after finishing her degree Dolores went on to myriad pursuits, including selling real estate, publishing poetry, and even authoring a novel. Dolores and George eventually left their empty nest in Riverside for a home in Northbrook to be closer to their ever-growing number of grandchildren. George and Dolores were married for nearly 50 years, until his death in 1996. After George's death, Dolores founded the successful and still-running Society of Active Single Seniors (fondly referred to as "SASS"). There she met Chuck Preihs, and they went on to have a 24-year romance.

During her many years, Dolores traveled the world, and her homes in Chicago and its suburbs were beautiful, as were her home in Jensen Beach, Florida and her sailing yacht in Chicago's Burnham Harbor. She enjoyed spending time with her seven children: Gail (Thomas) Breen of Northbrook; the late George (Jean) Schaller, Jr of Arlington Heights; Joyce (the late Louis) Vitullo of Glenview; Gloria (Thomas) Drake of Arlington Heights; William (Jane) Schaller of Lake Forest; Mark (Laurie) Schaller of Arizona; and Robert (Nancy) Schaller of Hinsdale. She was also a proud grandmother to 18 grandchildren and great-grandmother ("GG") to 10 great-grandchildren. She will be deeply missed by all her family, both close and extended.

Dolores was refined and articulate and always well-dressed, a woman of style as well as substance, to be sure. Wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother; sister, aunt, friend and mentor. Above all else, matriarch. Dolores played many great roles in her long life, and she played them greatly.

She gave life. She lived life. She was life. May she rest in peace now and forever.

Wake on Thursday, January 26, 2023, from 4 to 8 pm at N.H. Scott & Hanekamp Funeral Home, 1240 North Waukegan Road, Glenview, Illinois 60025. Funeral Mass on Friday, January 27, 2023,at 10 am at St. Norbert's Church, 1809 Walters Avenue, Northbrook, Illinois 60062. Interment (private) at All Saints Cemetery, Des Plaines, Illinois. Funeral information 847-998-1020.

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