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Richard Lee Harris (BSJ76)

Richard Lee Harris, a beloved family man and distinguished journalist, died in hospice in Washington DC on October 2, 2024. He was 70.

Richard, a member of Medill’s Hall of Achievement, shaped some of the world’s biggest news stories over the past half century as a broadcast producer for NPR’s All Things Considered, news editor at NBC News, and senior producer for ABC News’ “Nightline” for almost two decades. He structured a first-of-its-kind televised town hall between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in 1988 and secured an interview for “Nightline” with Nelson Mandela moments after his release from South African prison. Richard’s pitch for Ted Koppel to interview Brandeis professor Morrie Schwartz on the topic of death and dying put in motion the global best-selling memoir “Tuesdays with Morrie.”

Richard won 14 News & Documentary Emmys and a Columbia DuPont award, and is honored as a standout alumnus in the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism Hall of Achievement.

In his personal life, Richard enjoyed playing word games with his sister, taking photographs of nature and family moments, bonding with the family dog on late-night walks, and savoring coffee and ice cream (or better yet ½ coffee ice cream). Richard spent some of his happiest moments as Papa to his three grandchildren, reading together, filling the bird feeder, and indoctrinating them into Red Sox Nation.

Richard is survived by his loving wife of 44 years, Kit (O’Connell) Harris; daughters Emily Harris, Susannah Harris, and Lily Harris; sons-in-law Duza Baba and Ben Estabrook; grandchildren Miles Baba, Cecelia Baba, and Norah Estabrook, and sister Debbie Mozes, along with many brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, and nephews.

Richard was preceded in death by his parents, Mildred ‘Millie’ Harris and Lester ‘Lefty’ Harris, and his uncle Jonas Chaves.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/washingtonpost/name/richard-harris-obituary?id=56561625

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Neil King (MSJ90)

Neil King, the former global economics editor at The Wall Street Journal, died Tuesday from cancer.

He left The Journal in 2016. Last year, his book “American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal” documented his 330-mile walk from Washington to New York.

King worked for 15 years in the Journal’s Washington bureau, where he covered beats ranging from terrorism and foreign policy to trade and the international oil industry. He served as national political reporter from 2010 until early 2014, when he took over as editor of the Journal’s economics coverage.

He first joined Dow Jones in January 1995 as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal Europe, based in Prague. In November of that year, he moved to Brussels as chief correspondent of the European Journal’s Central European Economic Review. In 1996, he became the European Journal’s chief diplomatic and security correspondent.

Prior to joining Dow Jones, King was a staff reporter for the Tampa (Fla.) Tribune in 1990 and moved to Prague in 1992 as a freelance correspondent. He did freelance reporting for the European Journal from Prague from 1993 to 1994.

Born in Colorado, King earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Columbia University in New York and a master’s degree from the Medill.

King, former WSJ global economics editor, has died

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Stephen Byers (MSJ71)

Stephen Byers passed away on June 2, 2024 at the age of 81. Beloved husband of Gen McBride for 24 years. Loving father of Steven Byers, Mark Byers (Mary Krogmann), John (Laura) Caspari and Cate (Kyle) O’Connell. Proud grandfather of Allen Byers, Dawson O’Connell, Brynn O’Connell, Zoe Caspari and the late Hannah O’Connell; step grandfather of Ian McVeigh, Gwen Atkins, Carrie Krogmann and Bella Krogmann. Dear brother of George “Mike” (Judy) Byers, the late Jane (Lynn) Carstens, Bill (the late Janice) Byers, Phyllis (Dick) Lacey, Rick (Dorie) Byers. Dear brother-in-law of Joe McBride, Mike (Kerin) McBride, Pat (Kim) McBride, Dennis (Karen Barry) McBride, Mark (Kim Stanton-McBride) McBride and Tim (Shirley Porterfield) McBride. Proud great grandfather of Lacey and Allen Byers Jr. Steve will be greatly missed by his wonderful home health aide Laura Buchman, his nieces, nephews, cousins, other relatives and many friends.

Steve attended Indiana State University for his undergraduate degree Northwestern University for his masters in journalism UW Milwaukee for his doctorate in Urban Studies.

Steve was a talented journalist, wrote for several papers and was a reporter and editor for more than three decades at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He then was a professor of journalism at Marquette University.

Steve devoted his life to Gen and her children and their grandchildren for the last 30 years. He brought laughter wherever he went, always brightened the room and taught many how to love with a bigger heart.

He loved basketball, traveling, sailing and cooking. But most of all he loved his many talks with Gen about books and politics. Steve and Gen had the joy of together writing the book Dear Mrs. Griggs: Women pour out their hearts from the heartland.

While later in life Parkinson’s took away many of the things that made him happy, he kept a good spirit and only wanted happiness for those he loved.

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Steve Albini (BSJ85)

Reprinted from Pitchfork.com
Photo credit: Casey Mitchell

Steve Albini, an icon of indie rock as both a producer and performer, died on Tuesday, May 7, of a heart attack, staff at his recording studio, Electrical Audio, confirmed to Pitchfork. As well as fronting underground rock lynchpins including Shellac and Big Black, Albini was a legend of the recording studio, though he preferred the term “engineer” to “producer.” He recorded Nirvana’s In Utero, Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me, and countless more classic albums, and remained an outspoken critic of exploitative music industry practices until his final years. Shellac were preparing to tour their first album in a decade, To All Trains, which is scheduled for release next week. Steve Albini was 61 years old.

Despite his insistence that he would work with any artist who paid his fee, Albini’s catalog as a self-described audio engineer encompasses a swath of alternative rock that is practically a genre unto itself. After early work on Surfer Rosa, Slint’s Tweez, and the Breeders’ Pod, he became synonymous with brutal, live-sounding analog production that carried palpable raw energy. His unparalleled résumé in the late 1980s and 1990s includes the Jesus Lizard’s influential early albums, the Wedding Present’s Seamonsters, Brainiac’s Hissing Prigs in Static Couture, and records by Low, Dirty Three, Helmet, Boss Hog, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Hum, Superchunk, and dozens more. His influence rang through to the next generations of rock, punk, and metal at home and abroad, many of whom he went on to produce—the likes of Mogwai, Mclusky, Cloud Nothings, Mono, Ty Segall, and Sunn O))). He also recorded enduring greats of the singer-songwriter canon: Joanna Newsom’s Ys, Nina Nastasia’s early records, and much of the Jason Molina catalog among them.

Albini was born in Pasadena, California, and lived a peripatetic childhood before his family settled in Missoula, Montana. As a teenager, his discovery of Ramones transformed what he described, to Jeremy Gordon for The Guardian, as a “normal Montana childhood” into an altogether wilder entity. In the subsequent years, while studying journalism in Illinois, he was drawn into the Chicago punk scene that his music would come to both defy and define. Albini spent his days at the record store Wax Trax, buying every record that “looked interesting” and talking to “everybody with a funny haircut,” he told NPR.

“It was an extremely active, very fertile scene where everybody was participating on every level,” Albini said of Chicago’s music scene. “The community that I joined when I came to Chicago enabled me to continue on with a life in music. I didn’t do this by myself. I did this as a participant in a scene, in a community, in a culture, and when I see somebody extracting from that rather than participating in it as a peer, it makes me think less of that person.… My participation in all of this is going to come to an end at some point. The only thing that I can say for myself is that, along the way, it was a cool thing that I participated in, and on the way out, I want to make sure that I don’t take it with me.”

He began recording as Big Black in the early 1980s, channeling antisocial, sometimes violent themes through buzzsaw riffs and histrionic barks, grunts, and whelps, at first backed only by a drum machine (which remained a constant, pounding presence) and soon joined by Naked Raygun’s Jeff Pezzati and Santiago Durango; Dave Riley replaced Pezzati on bass for the band’s two landmark studio albums, Atomizer and Songs About Fucking. In his spare time, Albini would pen screeds in the 1980s zine Matter, admonishing bands in neighboring scenes and cementing the firebrand reputation that established him as an eminent rock grouch and refusenik.

After Big Black, Albini formed the short-lived Rapeman—a name he came to regret, despite the sardonic intent—before founding Shellac in the early 1990s, with Bob Weston and Todd Trainer. After a string of EPs through his longtime home of Touch and Go and Drag City, the band extensively toured (including an all-but-residency at Primavera Sound, the only music festival Albini was happy to play) and released five beloved albums: 1994’s At Action Park, 1998’s Terraform, 2000’s 1000 Hurts, 2007’s Excellent Italian Greyhound, and 2014’s Dude Incredible.

Albini has long been admired for sticking to his principles and questioning music industry standards, especially in the recording studio. He never took royalties from records on which he worked—including Nirvana’s In Utero, which has sold over 15 million copies—despite that being industry custom, and he kept his day rates low, especially for a producer with his pedigree. At Electrical Audio, his recording studio where he and staff members helped lay bricks in the construction process, Albini was famous for handing artists a yellow legal pad on the first day and instructing them to map out a written description of every song they were going to record. This was his way of avoiding future miscommunications and guaranteeing that artists maximized the in-studio time for which they paid. “The recording part is the part that matters to me—that I’m making a document that records a piece of our culture, the life’s work of the musicians that are hiring me,” he told The Guardian. “I take that part very seriously. I want the music to outlive all of us.”

Several bands have recounted experiences when Albini was behind the board reading a book or playing Scrabble during their recording sessions. As Albini explained it, this method helped keep his senses sharp and widened his perspective. “When I first started making records I would sit in front of the console concentrating on the music every second. I found out the hard way that I tended to fiddle with things unnecessarily and records ended up sounding tweaked and weird. I developed a couple of techniques to avoid this,” he explained in a Reddit AMA. “This has proven to be a really good threshold, so that if anything sounds weird or someone says something you immediately give it your full attention and your concentration hasn’t been ruined by staring at the speakers and straining all day.”

Throughout his career, Albini courted controversy through provocative band names (Rapeman, Run N***er Run), song titles ( “Pray I Don’t Kill You F***ot,” “My Black Ass”), and offhand statements (“I want to strangle Odd Future”). While he refused to apologize for his choice in names and jokes, in Michael Azerrad’s 2001 book Our Band Could Be Your Life, Albini made it clear that he believed his real stances on race, gender, LGBTQ rights, and politics were obvious. “I have less respect for the man who bullies his girlfriend and calls her ‘Ms’ than a guy who treats women reasonably and respectfully and calls them ‘Yo! Bitch,’” Albini told Azerrad. “The point of all this is to change the way you live your life, not the way you speak.”

Later in life, however, Albini repeatedly apologized for his past controversies, realizing that intent and moral clarity went only so far. “A lot of things I said and did from an ignorant position of comfort and privilege are clearly awful and I regret them. It’s nobody’s obligation to overlook that, and I do feel an obligation to redeem myself,” Albini wrote on X in 2021. “If anything, we were trying to underscore the banality, the everyday nonchalance toward our common history with the atrocious, all while laboring under the tacit *mistaken* notion that things were getting better. I’m overdue for a conversation about my role in inspiring ‘edgelord’ shit. Believe me, I’ve met my share of punishers at gigs and I sympathize with anybody who isn’t me but still had to suffer them.” He talked in depth about his regrets with The Guardian, MEL Magazine, and others.

Amid all of his ongoing work, Albini was a remarkable poker player. In 2022, he won a World Series of Poker gold bracelet after beating 773 other players in the $1,500 entry H.O.R.S.E. competition for a huge prize of $196,089. While most players dressed in button-up shirts and plain tees, Albini wore a furry, white hat shaped like a bear and a red Jack O’ Nuts shirt, saying the Athens noise-rock musicians “bring me luck.” He won another WSOP gold bracelet in 2018 for beating 310 players in seven card stud to the tune of $105,629. Back then, he was wearing a Cocaine Piss shirt during the big win. He had a massive grin on his face in the photos documenting both wins.

When asked how his career would be regarded if he ever retired, Albini told The Guardian, “I don’t give a shit. I’m doing it, and that’s what matters to me—the fact that I get to keep doing it. That’s the whole basis of it. I was doing it yesterday, and I’m gonna do it tomorrow, and I’m gonna carry on doing it.”

https://pitchfork.com/news/steve-albini-storied-producer-and-icon-of-the-rock-underground-dies-at-61/

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Roderick S.A. Oram (MSJ75)

As published in the New Zealand Herald:

Longtime financial and climate journalist Rod Oram was much loved and respected in the local business and media community.

Oram, who was a journalist for more than 40 years, died on Tuesday afternoon, after having a heart attack while cycling last weekend.

He was the inaugural editor of the Business Herald when it was launched as a distinct unit in 1997.

Born in the United Kingdom, Oram spent 20 years as an international financial journalist in Europe and North America, and travelled extensively in those continents and in Asia.

From 1975 to 1979, he held various journalist positions in Canada and from 1979, until joining the New Zealand Herald, he held a variety of posts at the Financial Times in London and New York City.

Fran O’Sullivan, NZME’s senior business correspondent and a longtime colleague and friend of Oram, recalled his passion for his work.

“I first met Rod Oram when I travelled to London on a Foreign and Commonwealth Office scholarship in the early 1990s. I was then editor of National Business Review – he was city editor at the Financial Times,” she recalled.

“His bubbling enthusiasm was contagious – right from the start. I like to think I also excited him with the derring-do that was possible in New Zealand business journalism at that time; particularly on the investigative front.

“We next met when Ivan Fallon was headhunting business journalists to join Wilson and Horton (predecessor of NZME) to launch the Business Herald. Rod set out to create the Business Herald as – what he used to call – a ‘beacon of hope’ for top-notch journalism in New Zealand.

“I will never forget his opening gambit – ‘well hello” – down the phone, as he navigated the frustrations of leading a team within a general newspaper environment as opposed to a dedicated financial newspaper.

“He ultimately left the Herald and became a brand in his own right – specialising in particular in the climate sphere.

“But he never lost that contagious enthusiasm – whether it was talking about his plan to reach 100 (sadly not to be); his great bike adventures across central Asia, travelling to the COP meetings under his own steam or talking about the family he cherished. Agree with him or not, he is a great loss to civil discourse in this country. He will be missed.”

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B.F. Helman (BSJ69)

BF (Bernard Frederick) Helman died peacefully Friday, Mar. 29, in suburban St. Louis, after a long illness. He was 76.

Actor, poet, writer, film expert and enthusiastic observer of politics, BF was truly a Renaissance man, with sharp wit and endless curiosity.

He was born in Granite City, IL, where his parents owned and operated a popular women’s clothing store, Helman’s.

He graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University with a concentration in advertising followed by an advanced degree in Communications at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

BF held several positions in Chicago but his passion was the theater. He had numerous stage roles, and extensive on camera and voice over work, locally and nationally. He appeared in commercials and high profile corporate projects. A long time specialty was dramatic and comedic roles in syndicated radio dramas and programs.

BF’s passion project above all others was the Defiant Theatre Company in Chicago, where he acted and supported the group in countless other ways.

After more than 40 years, BF grew tired of the cruel Chicago winters and endless urban chaos. He relocated to St. Louis where he spent his last 10 years. He acted in Community Theater and actively participated in ROMEO groups, “really old guys eating out.”

His extended family in St. Louis, including his closest friend the late Barry Freedman, made sure BF was on the guest list for holidays and important occasions.

His friend group, locally and around the country, supported him during his illness: Johnny Heller, Don Rubin, Barbara Weiner, Allen Levin, Marshall Dyer, Barry Murov, Hedy Ehrlich, Ava Ehrlich and a close group of cousins.

He is preceded in death by his parents, Morris and Reeva Helman. He is survived by his brother Howard Helman (Phyllis), of Redondo Beach, CA, numerous cousins and theater friends all over the country.

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/st-louis-mo/bf-helman-11748492

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Marjorie L. Greenberger (BSJ45)

Marjorie Livingston Greenberger, 100, passed away peacefully in her home in Corvallis, Oregon on March 13th. She is survived by her beloved children and grandchildren: Ellen Parker, Joseph Greenberger, Michael Greenberger, and Ann Greenberger; she was the grandmother of Andrew Parker and Lily Parker; great-grandmother of Hollis June Parker. Marjorie is predeceased by her husband Dr. Maurice Greenberger of Canton, Ohio; her brother Clifford Livingston of Merrill, Wisconsin; and her sister Helene (Livingston) Byrns of Madison, Wisconsin.

Marjorie grew up in Merrill, Wisconsin. She attended Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, worked as a reporter, then taught English at Merrill High School. Marjorie married Dr. Maurice Greenberger and moved to Canton, Ohio where they raised their four children. She earned a Master’s degree in English from the University of Akron and taught for many years in their English Department.

Throughout her life, Marjorie’s siblings and their families gathered for summers on Merrill’s Lake Pesobic. Marjorie returned to the home that was always close to her heart and lived in Merrill for another 15 years before moving to Oregon to be near her children and grandchildren.

Marjorie was a gardener, avid reader, chocolate lover, and supported local libraries. She will always be remembered for her intelligence, gentle nature, and love for her family.

Condolences may be sent in care of: Fisher Funeral Home, 306 SW Washington Street, Albany, Oregon 97321.

The family suggests memorial donations to T.B. Scott Free Library or Merrill Historical Society.

https://www.fisherfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Marjorie-Livingston-Greenberger?obId=31109375

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Al Borcover (MSJ57)

Republished from the Chicago Tribune 

Alfred Borcover was the Tribune’s travel editor in the 1980s and ’90s, a time when travel sections were a robust element of Sunday newspapers and writers covered the globe in search of interesting stories.

“Back in the day, Al took readers to places near and far with an easygoing style that made them feel that they were his traveling companions,” said Carolyn McGuire, a retired Tribune associate Travel editor. “Between assignments he was always available to give advice to anyone who asked how to beat jet lag or the best hotel to stay in — you name it.”

Borcover, 92, died of natural causes on Jan. 24 at the Warren Barr Lieberman long-term care facility in Skokie, said his wife of 34 years, Linda. A longtime Evanston resident, Borcover had been battling a range of health issues and had been in hospice care.

Born Alfred Seymour Borcover in Bellaire, Ohio, Borcover was the son of a Russian-born father and a mother who had immigrated to the U.S. from Austria. He received a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University in 1953 and then served for two years in the U.S. Air Force, where he was a first lieutenant and served in Morocco and at a radar station in Maine, his family said.

In 1957, he received a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Two years later he joined the Tribune, briefly as a reporter before becoming a copy editor.

Borcover joined the Tribune’s Travel section in 1963 and for the next 10 years was an assistant travel editor, while also writing long articles about various destinations. His first Travel section article, published July 1963, took readers to Vilas County, in north-central Wisconsin, which he described as a “scenic wonderland of 1,300 lakes and thousands of acres of towering forests.”

Borcover’s stories included a focus on affordable rail travel while he also visited far-flung locales such as Tunisia and Israel. During this time he provided the content for “Arthur Frommer’s Dollar-Wise Guide to Chicago,” which was published in 1967. Tribune book critic Clarence Petersen called it “authoritative, well-written, fascinating and up-to-date,” and a book “to remind us natives of some of the attractions of home.”

A series he developed in 1976 on Bicentennial travel destinations, including Yellowstone National Park, the Arizona desert, Glacier Bay in Alaska and the Grand Canyon, was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration.

Borcover was named the Tribune’s Travel editor in 1979. In addition to leading the section and assigning stories to writers, he continued to file reports from around the world and also wrote a weekly column.

In 1986, he broke a story about scams that had been launched in Chicago by sham vacation brokers who took consumers’ fees but then denied them trips on the dates they desired. Ultimately the brokers were targeted by the Federal Trade Commission and sued by the state attorney general’s office before the state General Assembly passed legislation cracking down on such travel promoters.

Borcover continued focusing on travel scams, and his columns were distributed around the country through Tribune wire services.

“Though he was based here in Chicago, his syndicated stories and columns traveled as widely as he did,” said Randy Curwen, who succeeded Borcover as the Tribune’s Travel editor. “As a travel writer, editor and columnist, Al certainly knew his way around the world. And everybody in the travel world knew Al.”

In addition to basic information on destinations such as maps and costs, Borcover offered personal observations in his stories.

“What struck me … was that I didn’t feel as if I were in South America,” Borcover wrote in March 1983 on a trip to Buenos Aires. “The city’s ambience and architecture — from the colorful Italian district of La Boca with its brightly painted homes to the grandiose scale of Avenida 9 de Julio — were definitely European. The undiluted ethnicity of the few gracious residents I had met, and others I overheard, left me with the quick impression that this melting-pot country had not melted as in the U.S. Language of origin had not been buried, but preserved.”

Retired Tribune foreign correspondent R.C. “Dick” Longworth recalled Borcover’s “always upbeat and good-natured” personality.

“Al was one of the nicest guys in the Tribune newsroom,” Longworth said. “He was also a real pro, a graceful writer and a fine editor whose own sense of fun and adventure infused the paper’s Travel section.”

After visiting 60 countries, Borcover stepped down as Travel editor in 1993 and retired from the Tribune in February 1994.

“People always ask: What’s your favorite place?” Borcover wrote in his farewell column. “I never have an adequate answer. There are just too many places in the world to love, and I’m not finished seeing all that I want to see. There’s no end in sight.”

Borcover continued to write about travel for another 17 years as a freelancer, including a biweekly column for the Travel section.

Shortly after his final byline in the Tribune in 2011, Borcover began volunteering at O’Hare International Airport with Travelers Aid, working at an information desk.

“He loved volunteering to work on the travel desk at O’Hare, and would go every week, for a time, to sit at that desk in one of the terminals and offer advice and help to travelers,” said former Tribune correspondent Storer “Bob” Rowley, a longtime friend.

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Sheila Lorelle Jack (MSJ85)

Sheila Lorelle Jack was born May 26, 1953 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as the youngest child to the late Robert D. Jack, Sr., and the late Alberta V. Jack Scott. She was a beautiful, intelligent social butterfly, sincerely loved by her family and many dear friends. Her innate desire for knowledge led her to pursue an impressive career that allowed her to work in a variety of sectors including government, academia, and nonprofit. Sheila’s achievements included being a college lecturer, seasoned communications director, and Emmy award-winning producer.

Sheila was educated in Harrisburg public schools and graduated with honors from John Harris Senior High School. She chose to attend Spelman College where she joined the lifelong sisterhood of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. before graduating cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in English. Sheila continued her education at the University of Michigan, earning a master’s in urban planning with a concentration in housing and real estate.

Years later, she returned to her English educational roots and earned a master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University. She flourished in the communications field and worked at WUSA TV Channel 9, Washington, DC as a news Associate Producer and Public Affairs Producer; Reporter for WHMT Channel 17, Albany, NY; Press Secretary, New York City Human Resources Administration, New York, NY; National Director, Media and Press Relations for the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, White Plains, NY; Deputy Director of Marketing and Communications, Mayor Bill Campbell’s administration, Atlanta, GA; Director of Communications and Special Assistant to the President, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA; Associate Director, Diversity Outreach, Alzheimer’s Association, Chicago, IL; Media Specialist, United States Census Bureau, Atlanta, GA; Communications Consultant, Cascade United Methodist Church, Atlanta, GA.

Sheila’s tenacity and hard work was recognized when she was awarded two Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences – Washington, DC Chapter for Outstanding Program Achievement for, “Alzheimer’s: The Painful Enigma” and “Deaf Rights Now!” Additionally, she received nine Emmy nominations in that market between 1985 and 1989.

Sheila volunteered and participated in several organizations including The Junior League; Leadership New York (1992-1993); National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ); Atlanta Association of Black Journalists (AABJ); and East Point/College Park Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc.

Sheila was a loyal, proud, and active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She valued the friendships of her Delta Sisters, attended national conventions, regional conferences, local chapter events, and get-togethers with her line sisters. Sheila touched the lives of many people with her innate ability to engage in interesting conversations which could range from discussing politics to reality TV. She also just loved having a good chat.

Sheila always expressed her love to her close-knit family and enjoyed family get-togethers. She is survived by her sisters, Barbara A. Freeland of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Gloria E. Jack of Fairburn, Georgia, as well as her brothers, Wayne S. Jack of Atlanta, Georgia and Michael S. Jack of College Park, Georgia. Also surviving are six nieces, three nephews, six great-nieces, four great-nephews, one great-great-nephew, and a host of cherished cousins. Sheila’s two oldest brothers, Robert D. Jack, Jr., and Lawrence E. Jack preceded her in transitioning into eternal life.

https://obits.pennlive.com/us/obituaries/pennlive/name/sheila-jack-obituary?id=53683980

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Hank DeZutter (MSJ65)

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.

DeZutter head shot.

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