Year: 2020

Jerry Rossow (BSJ61)

Jerry Rossow passed away at Lakeland Community Hospital in Michigan on Friday, December 6, 2019 with his family by his side. He was 80.

After graduating from Buchanan High School, class of 1957, Rossow then attended Northwestern University and later received his MBA from Indiana University. He served in the U. S. Army and was honorably discharged in 1965. He married Edna Jaracz, who passed in 1978, and to that union was born a daughter, Elizabeth. On July 31, 1982 he married Kathryn Strayer at a ceremony in Niles; together they then raised their children, Peter and Sarah.

After a long career with Clark Equipment Company, he became Chief Financial Officer for Towne Air Freight, Inc. of South Bend, and the former Electro-Voice Company in Buchanan. He served in various boards and volunteering capacities. He was the co-founder of the Buchanan Fine Arts Council, served on the board of directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Berrien and Cass as well as President of the Buchanan School Board.

He took full advantage of his retirement and was able to enjoy many of his passions. He enjoyed opportunities to watch his grandchildren excel at sports and loved to watch Northwestern football games. He and Kathy were also long-time University of Michigan Football season ticket holders. When Michigan weather cooperated he would spend time outdoors working in his garden or traveling to Glen Lake, Mich., during the summers to enjoy the scenery and friends and family who would visit. He particularly enjoyed his time Up North grilling out, fishing, and spending time in Glen Arbor, Mich., with his grandchildren.

Preceding Rossow are his parents, Carl and Waunita Rossow and his first wife, Edna Jaracz.

https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/9402775/Jerry-Rossow

1940s Legacies

Kenneth Loss (MSJ49)

Kenneth D. Loss, born November 11, 1924 in Penns Creek, Penn., passed away peacefully at RiverWoods Nursing Care Center on Feb. 29, 2020. He was 95 years old.

After graduating from Mifflinburg High School in 1942, Loss went on to Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove. He enlisted and served a short stint in the Army Air Corps toward the end of World War II.

After earning his masters from Medill he went to work for The Grit newspaper where he spent 32 years, working his way up in the company to eventually become the managing editor.

At the age of 58, he left The Grit to pursue his original course and went in to the ministry for the United Methodist Church. He served parishes in Loganton, Osceola Mills, and South Williamsport before finally retiring for good at the age of 75. But during the course of his Grit tenure, he also served as a lay supply minister for various parishes around central Pennsylvania when the need arose.

He never lost his interest in current events and sports, reading the newspaper, cover-to-cover, every day until just before his death.
e was preceded in death by his wife of 61 years, L. Geraldine Loss, in December 2012, and his youngest daughter, Karen E. Loss, in June 2019.

He is survived by three children, Douglas R. Loss (Ruby) of Maryville, Tenn., Jo A. Saltzman (Ron) of Coatesville, and Susan D. Laidacker (Dave) of Danville; four grandchildren, Timothy Fargus (Jocelyn), Jonathan Laidacker (Andra), Laura Moore, and Stefanos Loss; and seven great-grandchildren, Watson, Vivian, Frederick and Harold Fargus, Cecilia and Oliver Laidacker, and Jameson Moore.

https://obituaries.dailyitem.com/obituary/kenneth-loss-1078842210

Features Medill News

Medill News April 2020

April 2020 News

Medill IMC Thought Leaders is proud to feature “IMC in a Changing World,” a series on marketing and leadership advice in the midst of the COVID19 epidemic and our new reality. We are grateful to our professors for their generosity in sharing practical advice for these challenging times.⁠ ⁠ We hope you and your family and friends are doing well and staying safe!⁠ ⁠ Follow along with the series on our LinkedIn page linked in the bio above, where you can also send us your questions. ⁠ ⁠ #IMCInAChangingWorld #MedillIMCThoughtLeaders #Medil #MedillIMC #COVID19

Patti Wolter has been named by the Provost as a Charles Deering McCormick Distinguished Professor of Instruction. This honor is awarded annually to a group of faculty members in recognition of their extraordinary teaching and service to the university. In naming Patti to the 2020 class of CDM Professors, the provost noted not only her exemplary teaching, but also her mentorship of students, alumni and younger faculty, as well as her leadership in matters of curriculum reform and her connections to some of the country’s most prestigious media outlets. Her three-year appointment as a Charles Deering McCormick Professor begins in September. A ceremony installing all of the CDM honorees will be held in the fall.

Medill senior lecturer Alex Kotlowitz’s “An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago” a trenchant examination of the social and emotional toll that gun violence exacts on both victims and perpetrators, has won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, bestowed by Columbia University and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. Established in 1998, the Lukas Prize recognizes excellence in nonfiction that “exemplifies the literary grace and commitment to serious research and social concern” that characterized the work of the award’s namesake, J. Anthony Lukas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and investigative journalist who died in 1997.

The Northwestern News Network (NNN) took first place in Best Newscast category of the Region 5 SPJ student contest and will now move on to the national SPJ competition. Joey took first place General News Reporting category for a story she did as a reporter, not as an intern, for the NBC affiliate in Bakersfield, California last summer. Region 5 comprises chapters in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.

Finding Yingying , which tells the story of Yingying Zhang, a 26-year-old Chinese student who disappeared at University of Illinois in 2017, won the Special Jury Recognition for Breakthrough Voice Award at the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW). This feature-length documentary by Jiayan “Jenny” Shi (MSJ17) began as an MSJ student short in a graduate documentary class that went on to win a College Emmy and be nominated for a Student Academy Award.

Features Home Medill News

Medill Alums Win 2020 Pulitzer Prizes – Individual and Teams

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date May 5, 2020
No Comments on Medill Alums Win 2020 Pulitzer Prizes – Individual and Teams

Congratulations to Medill alumnus Brian M. Rosenthal (BSJ11) of The New York Times on receiving the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for his work on the New York City taxi industry. His reporting found that drivers had been the victim of predatory lending resulting in nearly a thousand bankruptcies and several suicides. His series has led to the proposal of a $500 million bailout for drivers.

Rosenthal has been an investigative reporter on the Metro desk of The New York Times since May 2017. He covered state government for The Houston Chronicle between 2014 and 2016 and for The Seattle Times between 2011 and 2013. While in Houston, he was on the team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service for a series that exposed that Texas was systematically denying special education services to tens of thousands of children with disabilities. While in Seattle, he was part of a reporting team that won the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News for coverage of a mudslide that killed 43 people. He also has won a George A. Polk Award and the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting.

Read Rosenthal’s comments about the win: https://www.nytco.com/press/2020-pulitzer-prize-remarks-from-brian-m-rosenthal/

In addition to Rosenthal, Evan Hill (BSJ07), a member of the New York Times Visual Investigations team, was lead reporter on a New York Times investigation into the Russian bombing of Syrian civilians that won a 2020 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, as well as a George Polk Award for international reporting on February 19. The Pulitzer jury recognized the Visual Investigations team for two stories that proved, for the first time, that the Russian Air Force was responsible for a series of attacks on hospitals and other civilian sites in opposition-held Syria.

Andy Wolfson, (MSJ78), a reporter in Louisville at The Courier Journal, was a member of a team that won a 2020 Pulitzer for breaking news reporting for a story about hundreds of pardons issued by a lame duck governor, including for murderers, rapists and campaign supporters.

Also honored May 4 as part of a Pulitzer-winning team was Lori Montgomery (BSJ84), now deputy national editor at The Washington Post. The Post’s staff won the Pulitzer for Explanatory Reporting for a series that showed the effects of extreme temperatures to the planet (found here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/climate-environment/climate-change-america/).

Photo Credits
Rosenthal photo: Pulitzer.org
Hill photo: Evan Hill
Montgomery photo: WashingtonPost.com

2000s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Evan Hill (BSJ07)

Evan Hill, a member of the New York Times Visual Investigations team, was lead reporter on an investigation into the Russian bombing of Syrian civilians that won a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting on May 4 and a George Polk Award for international reporting on February 19. The Pulitzer jury recognized the Visual Investigations team for two stories that proved, for the first time, that the Russian Air Force was responsible for a series of attacks on hospitals and other civilian sites in opposition-held Syria. The investigation has been cited during a United Nations Security Council meeting on Syria and during a congressional hearing on protecting civilians during armed conflict. Hill and his team relied on traditional reporting, contacting dozens of sources, and new open source techniques, such as geolocation and metadata, to carry out their investigation.

1990s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Justin Kerr (BSJ93)

Local news publisher Justin Kerr announced that grants from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation and the Chicago Headline Club will power local journalism for the McKinley Park neighborhood of Chicago in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. The McKinley Park News, Kerr’s micro-local news outlet that covers a single Chicago neighborhood, will use these funds to power a new journalism initiative to support the community.

“We are honored and humbled by this critical support for our publication,” Kerr said. “The pandemic has upended the already-battered news industry. This funding for Chicago journalism ensures our communities stay informed with reliable, high-quality news and information.”

The McKinley Park News is one of 48 recipients of the McCormick Foundation grant, which were awarded to both commercial and non-profit community news publications. The Chicago Headline Club disbursed grants of up to $500 each to help local journalists with their news reporting expenses.

Features Medill News

Medill News Highlights – May 2020

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date May 12, 2020
No Comments on Medill News Highlights – May 2020

Northwestern’s 2020 Commencement will be Virtual with Student Option to Return for On-Site Ceremony Next Year

Read the announcement by President Schapiro.

Presentation of the John Bartlow Martin award for public interest magazine journalism and conversation with winner

Join us as Medill’s Helen Gurley Brown Magazine Professor Patti Wolter presents the 2020 John Bartlow Martin Award to Lizzie Presser of ProPublica for her story “The Dispossessed.” A conversation with Presser will follow. Presser is a journalist writing about inequality and how social policy is experienced. She was previously a contributing writer at The California Sunday Magazine. “The Dispossessed,” published in partnership with ProPublica and The New Yorker, is an investigation into the unjust repossession of African American-owned property through three different legal mechanisms in North Carolina. It won a George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting in 2020. Presser has twice been a finalist for a National Magazine Award and a Livingston Award.

Medill team wins Best Article Award from American Academy of Advertising

Online retailers must strike a balance between recommending relevant items to users and providing sponsored recommendations from advertisers. Recognizing this problem, a team at Medill IMC’s Spiegel Research Center developed an algorithm that improves user utility while reducing ad revenue by a small amount. The team consisting of Professor Ed Malthouse, postdoctoral fellows Khadija Ali Vakeel and Yasaman Kamyab Hessary, research fellow Morana Fudurić and Professor Robin Burke from University of Colorado Boulder were recently recognized for their work, receiving the 2019 Best Article Award in the Journal of Advertising from the American Academy of Advertising. The award was instituted in 1988 to honor the best article published each year.

Read the abstract

NNN Wins SPJ Award

Prof. Jack Doppelt Co-Produces Election Report

What began as “Can American Democracy Survive the 2020 Elections? The Role of Media, Law, Norms, and Technology in Assuring Acceptance of Election Results,” evolved to “Fair Elections During a Crisis: Urgent Recommendations in Law, Media, Politics and Tech to Advance the Legitimacy of, and the Public’s Confidence in, the November 2020 U.S. Elections. Read a New Yorker article about the report. Read the report.

Participate in the Medill Centennial Alumni Photo Gallery

We plan to feature testimonials and photos from 100+ alumni on our Centennial website, launching this summer. If you want to participate, please submit your quote and photo using this form! We would love to include you.

Lightfoot photo: WBEZ

2010s Books

The Red Movement

Shadan Kapri (MSJ13)

THE RED MOVEMENT provides a new perspective on how to combat modern-day slavery while protecting the environment.

The reality is impossible to deny any longer. Modern-day slavery is more widespread now than during the transatlantic slave trade with more people living in slave-like conditions than ever before in history. At the same time, the environment is being harmed at an unprecedented pace. These harsh realities have led to igniting THE RED MOVEMENT around the world.

The RED MOVEMENT is a global call to action of focused and deliberate change to end all forms of modern-day slavery and stop the destruction of the environment. The stunning truth is that slavery never really ended; it just changed form. People are still bought and sold in public auctions, forced to sell their bodies to survive, or work in hidden factories under unbearable conditions. Some toil away on farms and even on construction sites of some of the world’s most famous sporting events.

The forced labor of slaves can be linked back to certain toys we buy, clothes we wear, and even foods we eat. Slave labor is used in mining, and too often those basic raw materials find their way into electronics, computers, smartphones, cars, cosmetics, and even jewelry.

Slavery never stopped. It just expanded to include innocent men, women, and children from every nationality and race. Modern-day slavery, in all its various forms, is more profitable now than ever before, and its connection to the environment has remained a mystery for far too long.

We are in the midst of the greatest human rights and environmental crisis in history, and most people are completely unaware until now. Until THE RED MOVEMENT.

Books

The Talking Drum

Lisa Braxton-Reid (MSJ94)

Lisa Braxton’s debut novel has been published by Inanna Publications. The story is about three young couples and how they’re affected when an urban redevelopment project comes to their city and takes over an immigrant neighborhood in the process. The story takes place in the fictional city of Bellport, Massachusetts, on the eastern seaboard about 20 minutes north of Boston. The Talking Drum explores intra-racial, class, and cross-cultural tensions, along with the meaning of community and belonging. Examining the profound impact gentrification has on people in many neighborhoods, and the way in which being uprooted affects the fabric of their families, friendships, and emotional well-being, the novel not only focuses on the immigrant experience, but the way in which the immigrant/African American neighborhood interface leads to friction and tension.

2000s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Bill Healy (MSJ09)

Bill Healy (MSJ09) and Alison Flowers (MSJ09) met while studying at Medill. They recently co-produced a 7-part investigative podcast called “Somebody” for the Invisible Institute, The Intercept, Topic Studios and iHeartMedia. The podcast follows the story of Courtney Copeland, who was shot and killed in Chicago in 2016. “Somebody” is narrated by Copeland’s mother, who believes police are hiding something about his death. The series explores questions of police accountability and public trust.