Laurie Lawlor (BSJ75)
Inspiring, little-known story of two artists who changed each other’s lives and the course of musical history. Illustrated picture book for music enthusiasts age 6 and up.
Author: Belinda Clarke
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Everybody Here is Kin
BettyJoyce Nash (MSJ88)
On Boneyard Island, Georgia, where everyone’s weirdly kin, thirteen-year-old Lucille is marooned when her mother goes AWOL with an old flame, leaving Lucille with only her father’s ashes, two half-siblings, and Will, the misanthropic manager of the island’s only motel. The abandonment kills hope of Lucille’s promised snorkeling trip to the Florida Reef before ocean heat kills the coral, and illusions she’s harbored about her mother’s sanity. Everybody Here is Kin explores the lives of this sinking family, the island community, and fears of exposing wounds, old and new, when natural disaster forces them to trust, and depend on, strangers.
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Barbara Ann Bolsen (BSJ72)
Rev. Barbara Ann Bolsen, 72, of Rogers Park formerly of Cincinnati, OH died after a long illness on August 16, 2023. She is survived by her loving brothers David (Kathy) and Bill (Bev); cherished nieces and nephews, Erin, Ken, Marti, Bill, and Lisa; many grand nieces and nephew; goddaughters Julia and Carla, and her beloved dogs Huckleberry (Huck) and Dandelion (Danny).
Barbara graduated from the School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 1972. At the American Medical Association, she rose through the ranks from reporter to become the first woman to be named Editor of the award-winning American Medical News. In 1996, she left the AMA to pursue a divinity degree on a full time basis at Chicago Theological Seminary.
An ordained UCC minister, Barbara sought work that would engage her heart as well as her mind. In 1997 she joined The Night Ministry as one of the organization’s first Youth Outreach Workers. She helped launch weekly street outreach events for young people in Lakeview, often appearing on the nighttime streets in her clerical collar to earn the trust of unhoused youth, and was instrumental in establishing The Crib, an overnight emergency shelter for young adults. A tireless advocate for social justice, she was a member of a number of civic organizations, including the Lakeview Action Coalition (now ONE Northside). She also served as President of the Boards of Directors of the Community Renewal Society and the Blowitz-Ridgeway Foundation.
In 2020, after 23 years at The Night Ministry, Barbara retired as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement to pursue her interest in photography.
Throughout her life, Barbara traveled extensively, whether for personal pleasure, professional reasons, or while leading church youth groups on mission work in the United States and Central America. She sang in her church choir, officiated at many weddings, belonged to two book groups, and for several decades was an avid skier and sailer.
With humor, an uplifting spirit, and a generous heart, Barbara touched the lives of countless people who are better for having known her and who will mourn her loss.
Memorials in Barbara’s honor may be made to The Night Ministry or Chicago Theological Seminary (https://www.ctschicago.edu/).
https://www.chicagolandcremationoptions.com/obituary/barbara-bolsen
Casey Bukro (BSJ58, MSJ61)
Nuclear power once promised to be the solution to the world’s energy crisis, but that all changed in the late twentieth century after multiple high-profile accidents and meltdowns. Power plant workers, finding themselves the subject of public opposition, became leery of reporters. But one plant in Zion, Illinois, just forty miles north of Chicago, allowed unrestricted access to one journalist: the Chicago Tribune’s Casey Bukro, one of the first environment reporters in the country. Bukro spent two years inside the Zion nuclear plant, interviewing employees, witnessing high-risk maintenance procedures, and watching the radiation exposure counter on his own dosimeter tick up and up.
In Higher Power, Bukro’s reporting from the plant is prefaced by a compelling history of the city of Zion, including a tell-all of John Alexander Dowie, a nineteenth-century “faith healer” who founded Zion, and whose evangelism left a mark on the city well into the modern era, even as a new “higher” power—nuclear energy—moved into town.
With the acceleration of climate change, the questions and challenges surrounding nuclear power have never been more relevant. How did the promise of nuclear energy stumble? Should we try to address the mistakes made in the past? What part could nuclear power play in our energy future? Higher Power explores these questions and examines one American town’s attempts to build a better society as a bellwether for national policy and decision making
Daniel Alarcón is the recipient of the 2023 Cecilia Vaisman Award from Medill and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
Alarcón is the executive producer of Radio Ambulante Studios, where he oversees a team of more than 30 producers, editors, reporters, fact-checkers and sound designers living across Latin America, as they produce two podcasts, Radio Ambulante and El hilo. There are more than 200 episodes of Radio Ambulante produced in more than 20 countries. Alarcón also writes about Latin America for The New Yorker and teaches at the Columbia Journalism School.
The Vaisman award honors an individual working in audio or video journalism who works every day to shed light on the various issues affecting Hispanic and Latinx communities inside and outside the United States and is an active member of the NAHJ. It is given jointly by NAJH and Medill and includes a $5,000 cash prize. The award is named for Medill faculty member Cecilia Vaisman who died in 2015.
“Daniel Alarcón has been at the forefront of groundbreaking storytelling for the Latinx community,” said Medill Dean Charles Whitaker. “He helped bring long-form narrative radio journalism to Latin America with the start of his Spanish language podcast, Radio Ambulante. I am honored to present him with the 2023 Cecilia Vaisman Award.”
Alarcón’s nomination was reviewed and selected by a jury of Medill and NAHJ representatives, including members of the NAHJ Chicago chapter. The award criteria was determined by the jury.
“I had the honor of meeting Cecilia, and in addition to being a wonderful journalist, she was kind and generous and committed to passing on her knowledge to others,” said Alarcón. “She was a great friend to Radio Ambulante in our early years, and to be recognized with an award given in her memory is a great honor.”
Alarcón’s journalism has covered a variety of topics, including the rise of the new nationalist left, the book piracy industry, and the emerging democracy inside Lurigancho, Lima’s most notorious prison. His work has been published in a variety of outlets, including The New Yorker, Harper’s, New York Times Magazine, Wired, Granta, McSweeney’s and The Believer. Alarcón has been published in the New Yorker for the past 20 years.
“I am thrilled to congratulate Daniel Alarcón on his well-deserved Cecilia Vaisman Award,” said NAHJ National President Yvette Cabrera. “Daniel is a brilliant writer and storyteller, and his work has had a profound impact on the way we understand Latin America. His ability to understand his audiences is truly a gift. I am grateful for his contributions to journalism, and I look forward to reading his work for many years to come. Congratulations Daniel!”
Alarcón has won several awards in journalism, including the 2021 MacArthur Fellowship, 2022 Maria Moors Cabot Award, and the 2022 Cabot Prize for Latin American Journalism.
Alarcón’s work will be highlighted during an award ceremony hosted by Medill on Monday, October 3, 5:30-6:30 CT, in partnership with NAHJ
He had the street-smarts of a newsman, the whimsey of a jazz-loving poet, and a reformer’s distaste for all things unjust. Hank DeZutter, 80, died July 14, 2023, of a brain bleed after a fall days earlier in the Lincoln Park apartment he shared with wife Barbara. Hank covered protests and political unrest during the late 60s for the Chicago Daily News, winning awards including one for exposing FBI spying on activists at the U. of Illinois.
He helped launch the Chicago Journalism Review in response to the overly pro-police slant editors gave to violence during the ’68 Democratic Convention. Hank went on to teach writing and journalism at city colleges and Columbia in the South Loop. There he helped found Community Media Workshop, a program to help neighborhood groups get better press. Meantime, he wrote for the Chicago Reader on neighborhood issues, including a 1995 front-pager on a then-unknown Barack Obama. In spare time, he wrote books, spun poetry for the Chicago Journal, played boogie piano, and made impossibly long golf putts.
Surviving are wife Barbara Belletini Fields; her daughters Jayne Mattson and Ana Boyer Davis; sons Max (Sarah), Chris, and daughter Amanda Kotlyar (Simon); stepson Agward “Eddie” Turner; sisters Joyce (Ronnie) Mooneyham and Wendy (Steve) Callahan; and five grandchildren. Predeceased by mother Evelyn (née Dammer) and father Henri DeZutter. Gifts to Courage to Fight Gun Violence, Box 51196, Wash., DC 20091, or https://giffords.org/lawcenter/gun-laws/
Featured image courtesy of Block Club Chicago.
Block Club Chicago article about the legacy of Hank DeZutter.
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/chicagotribune/name/henry-dezutter-obituary?id=35954608
Julie Kliegman (BSJ13)
“In Mind Game: An Inside Look at the Mental Health Playbook of Elite Athletes,” Julie Kliegman offers insight into how elite athletes navigate mental performance and mental illness—and what non-athletes can learn from them. She explores the recent mental health movement in sports, the history and practice of sport psychology, the stereotypes and stigmas that lead athletes to keep their troubles to themselves, and the ways in which injury and retirement can throw wrenches in their mental states. Kliegman also examines the impacts of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, substance use, and more, with a keen eye toward moving forward with acceptance, progress, and problem-solving.
Featuring insightful interviews with Olympians Chloe Kim, McKayla Maroney, and Adam Rippon, NBA players Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan, former U.S. Open tennis champ Bianca Andreescu, and many other athletes and experts, “Mind Game” breaks down the ongoing, heartening movement of athletes across sports coming forward to get the care they need and deserve—and to help others feel safe opening up about their struggles, as well.
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William Snider (MSJ85)
William (Bill) Joseph Snider died June 20, 2023, at age 62 after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Bill grew up in the small Ohio town of Litchfield. He called himself a NASA baby, as his parents met working for NASA. He shared fond memories of his father creating intricate model airplanes and flying them on the weekends with friends. Bill found comfort early on in books and took to reading incessantly for the rest of his life.
Bill made his journey across the country to study Economics at Occidental College in Southern California. He spoke fondly of his introduction to fresh foods in the cafeteria that opened his world to the joys of flavor. While in school, he took trips with a friend to Tijuana to build houses for those without. He even took a creative writing class with the then future president Barack Obama when Bill just knew him as “Barry”.
After college, Bill found work in the area setting up and maintaining the Grand Prix equestrian jumping standards. He then got a bit more serious and earned a Master’s Degree in Journalism at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois.
Bill focused his writing career on K-12 education. He wrote for Education Week with his best friend, Blake Rodman, while they lived together in Washington D.C.
He was introduced to his former wife, B. Ann Matthews, at Kramer Books & Afterwords Cafe through their beloved late friend and chef, Damien. Bill and Ann married in North Carolina, where Ann was from, in the summer of 1990.
They later moved to San Francisco where Bill worked his way up to becoming the editor of Edutopia, published by the George Lucas Education Foundation.
The couple next moved to Greensboro, N.C., where in 1996 their daughter, Roxanne, was born. From that point on, she was the light of Bill’s life.
A lifelong passion for food led Bill to switch career paths. He taught himself how to bake artisan breads, hoping to fill a gaping hole in the local biscuit and cornbread cuisine. He liked to say that baking cured his habits of procrastination and being easily distracted.
Bill and Ann opened Simple Kneads Bakery in 2001. The bakery was beloved by many. The Asiago Peppercorn bread was a favorite, although some would argue the olive bread was better.
Ten years ago, he met his love, Margaret McEnally, who allowed him to share her life. They created a loving home together with her young daughter, Leslie, which brought Bill great comfort and joy.
Bill enjoyed watching golf on TV and said it was the perfect background for taking naps.
During his last days, his daughter, Roxanne, who he said was his greatest legacy, asked him if he had any advice. He responded: “keep it balanced” and “love is the most important thing.”
In his final FaceBook post, he wrote, “Here’s the secret to a happy life: ‘Accept what you cannot change and be grateful for every little thing.'”
He is predeceased by his brother Steven James Snider and survived by his daughter, Roxanne Snider, longtime partner, Margaret McEnally, and step-daughter, Leslie Rudd, as well as his siblings Patricia Lorene Humphress, Diane Elaine Snider, and Michael Edward Snider.
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Jay Cook (BSJ70)
Jay Francis Cook, of Lithia, Florida passed away on June 12, 2023. He was surrounded by family and his loving wife of 8 years, Nancy, holding his hand. Born in Flushing, NY and grew up in Oyster Bay, NY, Jay graduated from Northwestern University with a Journalism degree and then went on to Indiana University School of Law to earn his Doctorate of Jurisprudence; practicing real estate law when he joined Dorsey & Whitney LLP in 1973 and became a partner in the firm in 1979 until 2007 when he moved to Naples, FL where he continued to practice law until he passed. Jay’s memory will be cherished by his wife, Nancy; son, Christopher; stepdaughters, Laurie (Alan) and Leslie; six grandchildren, Camden, Lukas, Noah, Jude, Mason, and Mila; his siblings, Bruce (Anne), Ann (Paul), Peter, Barbara (Dennis) and many nieces and nephews. Jay is predeceased by his parents: Frank G Cook and Adrienne M (Weiss). Jay enjoyed traveling with Nancy, playing golf and most of all loved spending time with his family and friends.
Vidya Krishnamurthy was named Chief Communications Officer and Senior Adviser to the President at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, a private charitable foundation in Menlo Park, CA. She was previously Director of Communications at the same organization, and before that, was the first-ever Communications Director at the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC, where she served for nearly a decade.