in 1991. After Dan was elected to the Senate in 1992, the Cronin family was called the "Kennedys of DuPage" or "Kennedys of Elmhurst", not necessarily a compliment in the Republican-dominated county. The family was seen as politically ambitious, potentially prompting animosity and wariness from incumbents and insiders. Dan's father, Richard Cronin, was born in Oak Park. Richard played football while attending Fenwick High School and the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated in 1946. He earned a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1950 at the Stritch School of Medicine, part of Loyola University Chicago, and completed his residency at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System. He and Claire Cusack married in 1952. Richard enlisted in the Air Force in 1954 and served as an orthopedic surgery resident for two years at Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul. He then opened a medical practice in Chicago's west suburbs, and in 1960 the family moved from River Forest to Elmhurst. Within the next few years, he organized a group of around ten doctors who purchased land to construct a medical office building at Palmer Drive and Kenilworth Avenue in Elmhurst. He specialized in sports medicine, and was crucial to the recovery of John Huarte, who suffered an injury in 1964 while playing football at Notre Dame and later went on to play for the National Football League. In 1986, Richard acquired full ownership of his office building after buying out the other partners. Richard was also a clinical medical professor at Loyola, and served as the vice chair and program director of the school's department of orthopedics. He retired from practicing medicine in the 1990s, but continued to manage the office building. He subsequently helped Dan with his senate and county board campaigns. Richard died in 2016, aged 89. Tom Cronin, Dan's younger brother by four years, was interested in politics as early as when he attended York Community High School. He and Dan worked at the Elmhurst office of Daniels, their state representative. Tom pursued undergraduate studies in political philosophy at Harvard University, and continued to work for Daniels during summer breaks. He then received a Juris Doctor and a Master of Business Administration at the University of Chicago. From 1990 to 1992, he clerked for William J. Bauer, chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and former state's attorney of