Illinois has lost two former governors in roughly four months.

On May 2, former Gov. George Ryan died at 91 in his native Kankakee. Now the man who preceded him in office has succeeded him in death, as former Gov. Jim Edgar succumbed to pancreatic cancer Sunday in Springfield.

Whereas Ryan’s tenure ended in shame during my early journalism career, Edgar’s time as the state’s chief executive took me from middle school to early college. My first thought of Ryan remains a striking positive: the vital part he played in ending capital punishment in Illinois. When thinking of Edgar, the buzzword is pensions.

Writing for Capitol News Illinois , Hannah Meisel and Jerry Nowicki explained Edgar was “the lead architect of the state’s 50-year plan to adequately fund pensions by the year 2045.

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