Dean Miller Skylar

Dean Miller Skylar, who began his early adult years crusading against traditional gender roles and ended them as an activist for prostate cancer awareness, died July 20, 2026 in Naperville, Ill. from complications of the disease. He was 73.

Skylar was a second-wave feminist, who with his wife, Christine Ledbetter, successfully sued the state of Florida in 1982 for the right to name their child a combined surname instead of the father’s last name. In a constitutional issue that changed state law, they named their child Sydney Anthony Skybetter.

A dedicated parent, he spent months as a stay-at-home dad, enrolling in Mommy & Me exercise classes and other enrichment programs for Sydney, and later their second child, Rachel. He was often the only father in the room.

Christine, Sydney (Leticia Alvarado) and Rachel Skybetter (Kyle Thoms) survive him as well as four grandchildren; Lukas Skyado, Mika Skyado, Matilda Skybetter-Thoms, Archie Dean Skybetter-Thoms, and two sisters, Claudia Skylar and Stephanie Hench.

The son of Marilyn and David Skylar, he grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio. He described his childhood as idyllic. Every evening he played baseball at the neighborhood schoolyard. He began tennis lessons at age 11, playing competitively through high school.

 Dean graduated from Colgate University with an economics degree in 1975, and proceeded to University of Missouri where he earned an MA in publishing in 1978. An earlier photo internship at Sports Illustrated inspired him to become a photojournalist. But, “I quickly realized that my co-students had much more talent. In fact a few in my photo-j class went on to win global prizes or lead photography at National Geographic,” he said.

 At Missouri, in what he called his “15 minutes of Chutzpah,” he approached his future wife in the registration line. “I asked her to go out for a beer with me — and she flat-out rejected me,” he said. “But then I introduced her to the instructor for a class she needed that was full. I’d had dinner with him the night before, because he had written a book on suburban journalism that included my father, the publisher of Sun Newspapers in Northeastern Ohio. The instructor made room for her in the class, and I wound up going out for that beer.”

They were married for 49 years.

He started his career in newspaper management and sales, dramatically changing how small “shoppers” or free newspapers could be significant money makers.

Later he and Christine ran two weekly newspapers in Delray Beach and Boynton Beach, Fla. as publisher and editor.

After eight years in Florida, he changed his focus to sales and marketing, eventually retiring as a product manager for Verizon in 2018.

He used his talent for photography to capture his children's and grandchildren's sporting events and arts performances. Besides photography, he loved the “3 Cs” as his daughter called them: Costco, Consumer Reports and cars.

His mother complained he knew more about automobiles than any school subject, especially if it was a Ford GT or Shelby Cobra. He tried to get his dad to buy a rare 427 AC Cobra in the late 1960s, but settled for his beloved 1970 Mustang Mach I.

As a senior project at Gate Mill’s Hawken School, he ran an auto-safety clinic that was well-attended, due to his media outreach that attracted local television channels.

 After his cancer diagnosis, his mission included informing others about the disease as well as the benefits of Wellness House, a cancer support center in Hinsdale, Ill. There he received counseling and group therapy, becoming one of the top fundraisers for the organization.

In Naperville, he joined a local pickleball community where he found deep friendships and support through his years-long cancer-treatment. It became his church. Almost 40 of them joined Team Dean in a 7 a.m. walk to raise money for Wellness House, and weeks later the group organized a tournament in his honor that raised an additional $3,000 for the nonprofit.

He sought to build memories for his grandchildren. When he realized he would not live to see his youngest turn six, he and Christine wrote a book, “Superhero Sidekicks,” in which Archie, a Spider-Man fan, and Grandpa were superheroes who saved Naperville’s dogs from the bad guys, Elon and Donald.

In the last weeks of his life, Dean watched Wimbledon and called his longtime friends to say goodbye. He edited this obituary, written by his wife. He made plans for his service to include pickleball and music, asking for a cover band to play Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.” He later decided a DJ would suffice.

Days before he died, his family came together to celebrate him by telling stories about his life. The five-year-old recounted when grandpa sprung him from daycare to go to a “Touch-a-Truck” event where they both rejoiced at seeing the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.

One of his doctors called him a gentle silent warrior. He was astute about his disease, passionate about sharing information with other sufferers, and accepting about its course. Still, the end, he said, came too quickly.

 Details of the celebration of life will follow. It will involve pickleball. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Wellness House and Chicago's NPR station, WBEZ.

Photo Credit: Mason Bendewald