Camille Beredjick (BSJ ’13) and Kaitlyn Jakola (BSJ ’13) welcomed their daughter, Sadie Scout, on November 26 in Evanston, Illinois.
Author: Belinda Clarke
Thomas J. Harack passed away Nov. 29, 2025 suddenly at home. Adoring husband of Mercedes Amundsen. Beloved brother of his twin Anthony Harack (Gina) and sister Joanne Harack (Michael Kahan). Doting uncle of Jonathan Harack. Predeceased by his parents Elizabeth and John Harack. He will be deeply missed by his cousins, his many colleagues and friends in the golfing community, fellow alumni from Evanston Township High School, Cornell University and Northwestern University’s Madill School of Journalism, as well as every pet he ever encountered.
From his earliest years, Tom was a writer. Written for his dad as a Father’s Day gift, his first known work, with chapters “Kittens are Trouble and Smart,” “Kittens are Trouble and Fun,” and “Kittens are Trouble and Small” reflects Tom’s lifelong affection for cats and forecasts his interest in food. As a child, Tom was the fussiest eater on the planet, insisting that his McDonald’s hamburger be specially prepared with NOTHING but the meat. But once he tasted lobster at a surf ‘n turf restaurant, there was no turning back! Phone calls to his siblings invariably included the question: “What are you cooking?”
One of the most traveled golf writers in the business, he visited many of the famous courses in multiple countries across multiple continents. That frenetic travel schedule took its toll and he was happy to avoid airports in his last years.
Tom was a meticulous editor with a wicked sense of humo/ur (as a dual Canadian/American citizen, he acknowledged both spellings) who recognized absurdity, called it out in a mischievous way, and reduced us all to helpless laughter on many occasions. Per his wishes, he has been cremated, with a private memorial round of golf planned for a later date. Please “Have one for the boys overseas” in his memory. Donations in his memory to World Central Kitchen, https://wck.org/ or the charity of your choice are appreciated.
Categories
Goodbye, French Fry
Rin-rin Yu (MSJ01)
Rin-rin Yu just published her debut fiction novel for middle grade readers, called Goodbye, French Fry. When 10-year-old American-born Chinese Ping-Ping is exhausted from all the trials of her life: a schoolyard bully, potential overseas move, a troubling taekwondo move, piano recital mistakes, and a need for glasses – she learns to give her frustrations a big kick and people a second chance. The book is based loosely on her own childhood growing up in suburban New York. More info at rinrinyu.com and on instagram @rinrinyutheauthor
Categories
A Fraction of a Point
Nina Mandell (BSJ07)
When the Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School gymnastics team competes in the Ohio High School Athletic Association state gymnastics meet, they’re expected to win. That’s because they’ve won each year—since 2004. And as the streak builds, there’s more pressure each year on the public school’s team to continue that tradition. No year was more tense than the year that they were hoping to take home their 20th straight title.
A Fraction of a Point follows the Bees throughout the intense 2022–2023 season as the team works toward the state meet. During one of their most competitive seasons in recent years, sports journalist Nina Mandell explores the gymnasts’ backstories and traces the legacy of the Ganim family, the team’s longtime coaches. Initially led by husband and wife Joan and Ron Ganim, their daughter, Maria Schneider, then became coach. In a sport that has been plagued by scandal—especially for the mistreatment of athletes—the Ganims represent a changing face of gymnastics by emphasizing their players’ well-being and mental health.
Throughout A Fraction of a Point, the players and coaches frequently question if they’re good enough to keep the winning streak alive and if the gymnasts will be able to rise to the challenge. But this isn’t just a story about one historic season. At its heart, it’s also about the teenagers balancing athletics with high school life, the larger community that supported the team, what it means to compete for the joy of the sport, and the athletes’ and coaches’ dedication even while facing immense pressure.
David Bernknoph (BSJ80)
A novel about a down-on-his-luck journalist who accepts the challenge of packing up his entire life and moving to Alaska, where he’s isolated from the people and patterns he’s familiar with . Not everyone he works with shares his somewhat snobby sense of how things should work. And they often don’t get the jokes he thinks are comic gold. It’s a workplace comedy….’Northern Exposure’ in a TV newsroom, if you will.
Elizabeth Dougherty (MSJ88)
Many experts dream of writing a nonfiction book. Few do it. The Complete Expert-to-Author Guide: How to Plan, Write, and Publish Your Nonfiction provides a clear road map for turning expertise into a well-crafted book that can transform readers’ lives. Based on decades of publishing experience, book editors Elizabeth Dougherty (MSJ, 1988) and Marisa Solis provide a step-by-step methodology for writing advice-based nonfiction (the reader has a problem, and the author has a solution).
The Complete Expert-to-Author Guide covers what most writing guides don’t and what most aspiring authors skip: key foundational work that saves time, effort, and sanity. From refining the concept and organizing the content, to identifying the target audience and building an authentic author platform, this guide details what needs to happen to publish a book. Twenty-five hands-on assignments help authors stay focused and move forward with confidence, empowering them to complete their manuscript and get their message out into the world.
Solis and Dougherty are the cofounders of Book Structures Pro, a boutique editorial services firm that specializes in working with subject matter experts writing consumer and professional advice-based nonfiction.
Categories
AAJA 2026 Alumni Reception
Join Dean Whitaker and fellow alumni in Minneapolis for the annual alumni party during AAJA!
Where: The Local Minneapolis – 931 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN 55402
When: June 25 – 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
RSVP is requested, please, so we can gauge food.
Join Dean Whitaker and fellow alumni at Rosa Mexicano at the National Harbor for tacos and conversation during the Investigative Reporters and Editors Conference.
Friday, June 19 – 5:30 to 7:30 P.M.
There is no cost for this event but RSVP is requested please!
153 Waterfront St, Oxon Hill, MD 20745
Ian Douglass (MSJ06)
The pioneer era of North American professional wrestling reached its peak just as tens of thousands of Scottish families were forcefully evicted from their residences in the Scottish Highlands, bringing their culture, their customs, and the legacy of the Scottish clan system across the world with them. As a result, dozens of Caledonian organizations sprouted up, creating a formal network of Highland Games events, at which substantial money was awarded to the winners of athletic contests. Between 1870 and 1905, a select few Scottish athletes leveraged this network into fame on the growing North American professional wrestling circuit, and made contributions to the business that are still visible today.
In “Highland Games and Hippodromes: Scottish Identity and Influence at the Dawn of the American Pro Wrestling Industry,” Ian Douglass explores the role that the culture of Scots and Scottish immigrants played in shaping the bedrock of the wrestling business that still exists today, and also sheds unprecedented light on the fact that the matches contested on the wrestling mats of the late 19th and early 20th centuries weren’t nearly as authentic and innocent as has often been reported.
Categories
Byline for the Dead
Ray Welling (BSJ81)
Byline for the Dead is a historical mystery-thriller that interweaves stories from different eras as two journalists, five decades apart, work to unravel the truths about one of the most violent labor strikes in American history.
In 1984, Gray Wheeler is a disillusioned young reporter working for The Toledo Sword. Assigned to cover the 50th anniversary of the Auto-Lite strike—known as the “Battle of Toledo,” a bloody, five-day labor uprising involving 10,000 union workers and 1,300 Ohio National Guard troops—Gray stumbles across a mystery left unpublished a half-century earlier by another young reporter that connects the 1934 massacre to present-day political machinations.
Byline for the Dead explores themes of journalistic integrity, institutional memory, and the power of the past to shape the present.
As Gray confronts Toledo’s forgotten history and the ghost of his own unfulfilled ambitions, he must decide whether exposing the truth is worth the cost—especially when the truth fights back.