Former Chicago police Supt. and Cook County Sheriff James O'Grady died last week.

O'Grady died Monday, Jan. 5, according to a published obituary. He was 96 years old.

O'Grady was born Jan. 21, 1929, to immigrants from County Mayo, Ireland. His father was also on the Chicago police force.

O'Grady graduated from St. George High School and DePaul University. He joined the Chicago Police Department in 1952, according to published reports.

As a Chicago police officer, O'Grady won the CPD's Blue Star Award for suffering a critical gunshot wound while thwarting the armed robbery of a woman during the holiday shopping season on State Street downtown in 1971, according to his obit.

O'Grady rose through the ranks of the Chicago Police Department, and had reached the rank of chief of detectives when he was appointed as Chicago police superintendent by Mayor Michael Bilandic in 1978 — replacing James M. Rochford.

Mayor Jane Byrne defeated Bilandic and took office in 1979. As documented in published reports, Byrne had vowed to remove O'Grady as superintendent on the grounds that he had "politicized" the CPD.

O'Grady resigned as police superintendent when Byrne took over. But two years later, after serving as undersheriff to Cook County Sherif Richard Elrod, O'Grady returned to the CPD as first deputy superintendent, according to an archive Chicago Tribune report.

O'Grady also returned as interim police superintendent in April 1983 after Supt. Richard Brzeczek resigned, and served until Mayor Harold Washington appointed Fred Rice Jr. to the post four months later.

In 1984, O'Grady left the CPD and took over a detective agency on the city's Southwest Side, the Trib reported. Just over a year after that, O'Grady, a former Democrat, took on the Democrat Elrod and won the 1986 race for Cook County Sheriff as a Republican.

A 1986 Tribune report said that during his run for sheriff, O'Grady was courted by President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush, and his name was even bandied about as a possible candidate for mayor of Chicago.

But under O'Grady, the Cook County Sheriff's office was dogged by corruption allegations, though O'Grady himself was never charged with any wrongdoing, published reports noted. O'Grady lost his bid for reelection as sheriff in 1990 to Democrat Michael Sheahan.

O'Grady's obituary emphasized his dedication as a law enforcement officer, and his faith.

"Jim was Irish-Catholic, but he said the correct term should be Catholic-Irish because God comes first, and nothing else is possible without faith in God," his obit read.

A visitation for O'Grady was held on Saturday.