Longtime Mercy Home President, Child Advocate 'Father Jim' Dies

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago has lost one of its most important voices in the care of children.

As CBS 2's Jim Williams reports, the Rev. James Close, who served for 33 years as the head of the Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, died Wednesday.

Father Jim, as he was called, was a young priest when John Cardinal Cody told him he had to take over a boys' orphanage that had been around since the 19th century on Chicago's Skid Row.

Father Jim didn't want to do it; he was happy at his north suburban parish. But he found his life's work at Mercy Home, 1140 W. Jackson Blvd., and he loved it.

Child advocates say Father Jim transformed the home, making it a national model for caring for kids in crisis: those orphaned, or those neglected and abused.

It wasn't enough for the children to have food and shelter 365 days a year. Father Jim made sure they had the therapy and academic guidance they needed to become productive adults.

In 1987, he Jim decided Mercy couldn't ignore half the population, so he created at a girls home in the Beverly neighborhood, thus the name today -- the Mercy Home for Boys and Girls.

There are many in Chicago who believe Father Jim saved thousands of lives. Today, they are lawyers and investment bankers, police officers, teachers and firefighters.

Father Jim Close retired in 2006. He fought cancer for 13 years, until it finally took his life at 75.