Family and friends left behind by Friday’s deadly law firm rampage gathered Tuesday and found solace amid tragedy.

“We have seen the worst of human nature this week, and we’ve seen a lot of the best of human nature this week with all of the support we’ve gotten,” Allen E. Hoover said outside the funeral of his father.

Allen J. Hoover, 65, of Wilmette, was gunned down at the Wood Phillips law firm, where he had practiced patent and intellectual property law for 20 years.

Police say Joe Jackson, 59, also killed Paul Goodson, 78, a retired schoolteacher working at the firm in the building atop the Ogilvie Center, and Michael R. McKenna, a patent lawyer who had once done legal work for Jackson. Police sharpshooters killed Jackson while he held another man hostage on the 38th floor of a downtown office building.

Jackson thought McKenna had stolen his invention of a portable toilet for truckers, police said. McKenna’s family said Jackson’s claim was false.
Hoover’s closed-casket wake and funeral at Smith-Corcoran funeral home, 6150 N. Cicero, drew a standing room crowd that spilled into an overflow room. Friends remembered the married father of two as a lawyer of the highest integrity, a brilliant and generous man who knew something about everything.

“He had an incurable curiosity,” said Richard Phillips, a partner at Wood Phillips.