Dr. Robert M. Vanecko, Northwestern surgeon and son-in-law of Mayor Richard J. Daley, dies at 88

Dr. Robert M. Vanecko, a surgeon who served as chief of staff at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and was married to former Mayor Richard J. Daley’s daughter, Mary Carol, died Monday at 88.

Details of their wedding in 1964 were reported by the Associated Press and appeared in news blurbs in papers across the nation, including the New York Times, which noted more than 1,000 people, including then Illinois Gov. Otto Kerner, filled Nativity of Our Lord Church church in Bridgeport.

The mayor wore an ascot gray top hat as he escorted his daughter to the altar.  

Dr. Vanecko was training at Cook County Hospital at the time.

He was later hired under his father-in-law’s administration to work as the physician for the city’s municipal pension fund. 

The bulk of his career as a thoracic surgeon was spent at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he worked for more than 50 years and rose to chief of staff at the hospital. He also served on the faculty of the university’s medical school.

“I can’t tell you how many people I would run into over the years who were patients of his who would talk about how good he was to them and how much attention he paid to them,” said Dr. Vanecko’s brother, Dick Vanecko. “And he mentored a lot of young doctors at Northwestern.”

Dr. Vanecko, who most recently lived in Lincolnwood, died from natural causes at home surrounded by family, his brother said.

In 2018, he took on professor emeritus status at the medical school, which noted at the time: “Dr. Vanecko has made myriad contributions to the academic and scholarship domains of Northwestern University and the broader medical and surgical community.”

Dr. Vanecko attended Christ the King grammar school in Beverly and was a graduate of Leo High School in Auburn Gresham, where was a fullback on the school’s football team. He later went to Georgetown University and Northwestern University’s medical school. 

Dick Vanecko said he had a hand introducing his brother to his future wife Mary Carol Daley, who was a friend.

The couple raised four children in the Sauganash neighborhood on the Northwest Side. 

Dr. Vanecko also served as a medical doctor in the U.S. Air Force in Florida.

“He was a generous man with a dry sense of humor who loved boating in Grand Beach, Michigan, sailing in the Chicago to Mackinac Race, fishing, gourmet food and wine and was always on call to help others in their time of need,” according to an obituary published by his family.

Dr. Vanecko’s father, Michael Vanecko, was also a physician who met his wife, Rae Burns, a nurse, while working at Mercy Hospital on the Near South Side.

“The doctors and nurses weren’t supposed to fraternize and one nun was trying to catch them, and another would pass them notes on where they could find each other,” Dick Vanecko said.

Dr. Vanecko is survived by his wife, his sons Robert, Mark and R.J. Vanecko, and his daughter Mary Clare Hickman, as well as nine grandchildren.

A visitation will be held Sunday from 3 to 8 p.m. at Smith-Corcoran Funeral Home, 6150 N. Cicero Ave. A funeral Mass will be held Monday at 10 a.m. at Queen of All Saints Basilica, 6280 N. Sauganash Ave.