ROSELLE, IL, July 15, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Janet L. (Hoover) Bassitt, Esq., with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Ms. Bassitt celebrates many years' experience in her professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes she has accrued in her field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Upon receiving her Illinois law license in 1981, Ms. Bassitt was associated with DME Media Law Firm, Chicago, Illinois and thereafter maintained her own general law practice in Roselle, IL. for 22 years between 1982 and 2004 focusing on contracts and corporate law. Prior to earning her law degree, Ms. Bassitt first earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, with Honors, from the University of Illinois, Chicago, followed by her Doctor of Jurisprudence at The John Marshall Law School, Chicago, she was then admitted to practice law before the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, the U.S. Tax Court, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Early in her law career, Ms. Bassitt in 1985 authored the book "Attorney Conduct" published by Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education. Considered a landmark volume, the book was entered into the Western Illinois University Law Library archives and the university hosted a dinner in her name. Ms. Bassitt has contributed numerous articles in her areas of expertise, including law and psychology. While still in law school, she published, "Automatism: An Involuntary Act Defense" in the Illinois Bar Journal in 1980. She served her Illinois Rule 711 Internship with the Illinois Public Defenders Office in Chicago.
A longstanding member of the American Bar Association and the Illinois Bar Association, Ms. Bassitt continued to serve her community as Pro Bono lawyer for the Illinois Appellate Defender Program, The Constitutional Rights Foundation, Lawyers for the Creative Arts, and served on the Board of Directors for the Schaumburg-Hoffman United Way. A former instructor for several years at Harper College Women's Program in Palatine, IL., she also served the College of Financial Planning in Denver, CO. She is Past Chairman of the Wenatchee, WA March of Dimes Mothers March. While living in Wenatchee Ms. Bassitt was privileged to know and learn from Native American woman, Isabel Arcasa, Revered Elder of the Coleville Tribes and Custodian of Coleville Heritage. Isabel Arcasa was alive when Chief Moses and Chief Joseph led bands across the Pacific Northwest, she could accurately relate that history and identify native persons pictured in old early photographs. She was brilliant, articulate, kind and an eager teacher who sought to perpetuate the memory and understanding of the Native Coleville Tribes. She has been followed in life by many descendants. Isabel Arcasa lived almost 104 years.
Reflecting on her early life Ms. Bassitt recalls the horror of WWII; wounded disabled Veterans coming home after the war to attend Western Illinois College via the GI Bill and living in "Quonset Hut" Housing rapidly erected on campus to accommodate them; seeing Penicillin for the first time; seeing a first ball-point pen; seeing her first plastic glasses frames; learning to live without the fear of bombs; learning to live with the fear of Polio and quarantine signs; doctors making house-calls; the first Decoration Day after WWII remembering lives lost; learning to appreciate freedom and democracy.
Ms. (Hoover) Bassitt recalls throughout many school years helping her school round up dimes to fund research for curing Polio, leading a group of high school age Rainbow Girls earn funds for donating to a Masonic Free Hospital for Children in Chicago, being a Girl Scout from grade school through high school and volunteering as a Girl Scout Candy Striper at her local hospital, helping to feed evening meals to patients, and being asked to assist one of the physicians, Dr. Wm. Ernest Carnahan, Chief of Staff for the Hospital, who had begun his medical practice making house calls by horse and buggy, was reputed to be the best diagnostician in Illinois, and in 1961 was named "General Practitioner of the Year" by the Illinois State Medical Society. When a new hospital was constructed in her community, Ms. (Hoover) Bassitt, who was eager to study medicine and was by then certified as a Nurse Assistant, would at times be asked to assist one of the other doctors; one of those doctors was Dr. Frank J. DeRango who had joined as a practitioner with Dr. Carnahan and was an excellent teacher for new hospital staff, as well. Dr. DeRango went on to be a top anesthesiologist located in Naples, FL.
Later, when Ms. Bassitt moved to Nashville, Illinois with her young family, the battle was still raging against Diphtheria Polio, Tuberculosis, and many of the childhood diseases which are now preventable. Unfortunately, doctors who made house calls and treated all patients often did not escape contracting the feared diseases.
The best known medical practitioner in the Nashville, IL area, (Nashville with a population of 3,000 was the county seat of Washington County, Illinois) was physician and surgeon Dr. Charles W. Longwell, who having contracted Polio himself now wore heavy braces on his legs to enable standing and walking, yet he still made those house calls, kept his office open all days and some evenings (the nearest hospital was 30 miles away), and was revered by the entire community. When the Bassitt son was born the procedure was to pick up the doctor from his home in the middle of the night and bring him along for the trip to the distant hospital. That was the early 1960s. The community was trying to raise funds to build a local hospital. Mrs. Bassitt quickly became a charter member of the Proposed Washington County Illinois Hospital Women's Auxiliary Group. After some years of intense fundraising the new hospital was built. Mrs. Bassitt was asked to organize and direct the first prenatal classes for the new hospital, which she did, arranging with the University of Michigan to use their films of an actual childbirth for the classes and serving as a Consultant for the University of Michigan in this regard. When the new Washington County Illinois Hospital opened, it was initially difficult to persuade nurses and lab technicians to come to a small town of 3,000 population to work and live. Ms. Bassitt founded the Washington County Illinois Medical Scholarship Fund, which was successful and is still active after more than fifty years since it was founded.
When the oral Polio Vaccine was made available, members of the community congregated in the school gymnasium to receive the vaccine: Dr. Charles W. Longwell stopped by to witness the children he had delivered and cared for receive the vaccine and he smiled approvingly, knowing they would be spared from the crippling destruction of Polio. Dr. Longwell's son, Charles W: Longwell, Jr followed his father into the medical and surgical fields, and a grandson, Charles W. Longwell, III has become a top physician as well. A large picture of Dr. Charles W. Longwell now hangs in the Washington County Illinois Hospital, Nashville, Illinois.
The recipient of a National "I Speak for Democracy" college scholarship at the age of 14, and featured in the 1957 Western Illinois College yearbook, Ms. Bassitt has been highlighted in several editions of Who's Who in America, Who's Who's in American Law, Who's Who in the Midwest, Who's Who in the World, and Who's Who of American Women During her career Ms. Bassitt has maintained an AV rating by Martindale-Hubbell. Ms. Bassitt was born on October 8, 1941 in Macomb, IL, to mother Louise Lawrence Hoover and father J. Russell Hoover and she has three children, twelve grandchildren, and eight great grandchildren.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to her profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Janet L. (Hoover) Bassitt, Esq., has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
About Marquis Who's Who®
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
# # #