By BRANDON LaCHANCE

Staff writer

MENDOTA – During the ceremonies for his late wife, Dr. Mary Chinn, Bob Chinn was surprised.

He wasn’t surprised with the amount of people or the love shown to his wife and their family because she was a well-known doctor and personality in the community.

However, he was shocked with the number of donations given to the family.

The offerings led him to the idea of starting the Mary M. Chinn Charitable Corporation.

“The idea for the foundation came out of the blue. All of a sudden, I was getting all of these donations,” Bob Chinn said. “When they did the obituary, they put instead of flowers donate to the foundation. It didn’t really exist although we had talked about it at the time.

“I intended to create a charitable trust. The attorneys are telling me it should be a charitable corporation. We are in the process of setting it up.”

Paperwork for the corporation is currently in process as Bob Chinn has received a draft from attorneys.

“The basis of the Mary M. Chinn Charitable Corporation is to carry on her work, especially in Mendota,” Bob Chinn said. “The first thing the corporation will do is to continue to support the efforts of the people who are working in Mary’s office, Mary M Chinn MD, FAAFP.

“I think I’m going to be able to put together a family donation that we can create a perpetual fund for charitable causes initially in the Mendota area. I prefer it be used at the Mendota Area Christian Food Pantry, Graves-Hume Public Library, Mary’s office staff and things like prescriptions and health care people can’t afford.”

Dr. Chinn was born Nov. 15, 1951, and passed away Nov. 12, 2023.

Mary and Bob met 36 years ago, dated for four years, and recently celebrated their 32-year wedding anniversary.

“My son Christopher was taking an art class at the University of Illinois as was Mary’s daughter, Alicia,” Bob Chinn said. “They started dating. Mary and I had both been through a divorce. I had my boys, and we were going on a big canoeing trip. Alicia was coming, so I asked Mary if she wanted to come along with Paule. She said yes. I didn’t know it was a date at the time. Unfortunately, it ended too soon. I always thought I’d be the one to go first because she is so much healthier than me in so many ways.”

Bob has three sons in Robert, Christopher, and Patrick, while Mary has two daughters in Alicia and Paule. The five of them became a family.

Although Dr. Chinn is well known as a doctor, she enjoyed many aspects of life.

She moved to France when she was 16 and lived there for almost 12 years as she studied acting, married a musician, became a street musician, sold magazines on the subway in Paris, sold clothes at a dress shop, and was a translator at the American Chamber of Commerce in France.

Upon returning to the states, Dr. Chinn became a secretary at the University of Illinois and began taking classes at 30.

She met Bob as a second-year medical student while he was a superintendent at Heritage Community Unit School District #8.

Through education and healthcare, Dr. Chinn influenced many.

Now, Bob Chinn wants to honor his wife by doing what she would do, help people, through the Mary M. Chinn Charitable Corportation.

“Her greatest joy was working with moms, especially young moms. We had teenage moms and moms who had abusive issues at home come sleep at our home,” said Bob Chinn. “There were moms that Mary would drive to the hospital because they didn’t have a way to get there. At the wake we set out photo books of Mary’s Dr. Chinn’s Special Deliveries. There were 738 babies in those books. And there were many more not pictured.

“She truly cared about people. She also loved older citizens and would make house calls to elderly households.”