Category: Featured Legacies

Murray Olderman (MSJ47)

Murray Olderman with some of his cartoons.

Murray Olderman, an author and journalist who for more than six decades chronicled the sports world with his nationally syndicated cartoons in addition to writing features and columns, died on Wednesday in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He was 98.

Olderman was inducted into Medill’s Hall of Achievement in 2015. He traveled to Chicago to receive his award.

Olderman graduated as a journalism major from the University of Missouri. He received another bachelor’s degree from Stanford, where he studied French in a World War II Army program and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After the war, he obtained his master’s from Medill.

From Mickey Mantle to Joe Namath and Bear Bryant to Tiger Woods, Olderman covered them all. For 35 years he was a syndicated columnist and cartoonist whose work was distributed by Newspaper Enterprise Association to 650 daily newspapers. After serving as executive editor of NEA, he retired from the syndicate but remains active as a writer and artist.

One of the leading national authorities on pro football, Olderman was a past president of the Football Writers Association of America and the founder of the Jim Thorpe Trophy (for the NFL’s most valuable player) and the Maurice Podoloff Trophy (for the NBA’s MVP). His football murals hang in the Pro Football Hall of Fame at Canton, Ohio. He was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and is in the writers’ wing of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In 2013, he published a personal account of his time in the war. “A year apart…Letters from War-Torn Europe,” featured his letters to his wife written from Europe at the end of World War II with added insight into his experience abroad and his family.

He is survived by his daughter Lorraine and another daughter, Marcia Linn; a son, Mark; a sister, Diane Morton; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. His wife, Nancy (Calhoun) Olderman, died in 2011.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/sports/murray-olderman-dead.html

Photo: Taya Lynn Gray/The Desert Sun

1990s Featured Legacies Legacies

Betsy Rothstein (MSJ95)

Betsy Rothstein, columnist for the Daily Caller, passed away after a long battle with cancer. Her friend, Olivia Nuzzi, said this about Rothstein in an article posted after her death in “The Intelligencer.”

“I don’t know what I expected Betsy Rothstein to look like, but I guess I wasn’t expecting a woman who made her living filleting media personalities and nurturing feuds to be so tiny in stature. When she approached me on the grass outside the Capitol building and introduced herself, I almost burst out laughing. She was delicate — almost birdlike — with a sweet, girlish voice. I can’t remember what exactly we were both doing there. It was some kind of rally, and we were surrounded by protesters and people dressed up like soldiers in the Revolutionary War. This was 2014, what would turn out to be the last semi-normal year in American politics. I’d only been a part of the Washington press corps for a few months, but already I knew about Betsy, having learned about her, as many young journalists did, when she wrote about me in her gossip column. I knew she was regarded with a mixture of fear and contempt. I also knew that my colleagues read her, scanned her copy for their boldfaced names. I did the same.

Betsy was a professional thorn in the side of Washington media figures, whom she covered at The Hill, and then Fishbowl DC, and then the Daily Caller. Nora Ephron once said that when she watched TV news, she did so wondering if what she was seeing was actually a romantic comedy. Betsy watched the political media as if it were a sitcom. She was always looking for characters, preferably ones that amused her. She thought we were all silly. She was chronically wrong on the minor details, but on this larger point she was always correct.

Betsy had confronted the idea that she might not live, and she had chosen to try very hard, to suffer, to continue to be a part of this world. She wanted to live more than those of us who do not have to consciously register our will to live each day. She was taken out unwillingly. She did not “lose a fight” or “lose a battle.” We did. Those of us who loved her, robbed of her spirit and originality. Robbed of her delightful strangeness. And those who feared or loathed her, spared of her bite, unaware that they have lost something vital too.”

Photo: Darrow Montgomery

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/remembering-my-friend-betsy-rothstein.html

1990s Featured Legacies Legacies

Benjamin C. Williams (BSJ96)

Post author By Jude Cramer
Post date September 22, 2020
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On Thursday, September 17, 2020, Benjamin Charles Williams, beloved husband to Jill and devoted father to Ashley and Joel, passed away unexpectedly at the age of 46.

Ben was born on April 14, 1974, in Houston, Texas, to Chuck and Debbie (Matteson) Williams. He attended Cypress Creek High School, where he made lifelong friends in the band and graduated in 1992. He loved to write and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 1996. Shortly after graduation he joined the ranks of the Houston Police Department, graduating with Cadet Class 171 in March of 1998, and eventually achieved the rank of sergeant. On June 5, 1999, Ben married his childhood friend and high school sweetheart Jill McCormack. Ashley Rose was born on February 3, 2004, and Joel Benjamin on October 12, 2008.

Ben was an encyclopedia of movie trivia and could settle any debate about anything movie-related. He was a steadfast Astros fan. He also had a heart for animals and was always bringing home or threatening to bring home a stray kitten, dog or any other species.

Along with Jill, Ashley and Joel, Ben is survived by his father Chuck and wife Lisa, mother Debbie Ellisor and husband Gene, sister Erin Williams Lowery and husband Aaron, sister Allison Williams Reeves and husband Zac, stepbrother Don Ellisor, mother-in-law Pam McCormack, father-in-law Jack McCormack and wife Nicole, brother-in-law Mike McCormack and wife Suzana, and brother-in-law Heath Harrington and wife Kim. He also leaves behind many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews and pets.

https://www.kleinfh.com/obituary/benjamin-williams

1970s Featured Legacies Legacies

Deborah W. Hairston (BSJ75)

Post author By Jude Cramer
Post date September 23, 2020
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Deborah Williams Hairston passed away the morning of Wednesday, September 9, 2020, at Jersey City Medical Center from complications of a stroke. She was born in September, 1953, in Washington, D.C.

Deborah was a graduate of Calvin Coolidge High School & majored in journalism at Northwestern University. Deborah received a master’s degree in public administration from New York University. Her journalism career included roles as a freelance writer for Black Enterprise Magazine, editor for the McGraw Hill Chemical Engineering magazine and editor-in-chief for Pristine Processing, a publication Deborah founded. She then went on to teach and mentor students for 20 years in the English department at Saint Peter’s University. Deborah was a lifetime member of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church which had deep roots in her family. She found her lifelong home in Jersey City, New Jersey, across the street from Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church where she was a dedicated member for over 30 years.

Deborah is survived by her husband Rodney, children James and Jackie, and siblings Sheila and Russell. Deborah Jean was beloved by many. Her countless friends, students, colleagues and family will miss her joy for life, sharp wit and infectious personality.

https://obits.nj.com/obituaries/jerseyjournal/obituary.aspx?n=deborah-hairston&pid=196776628&fhid=31440

1990s Featured Legacies Featured Legacies Home Legacies

Joe Ruklick (MSJ90)

Former Northwestern basketball star Joe Ruklick died of natural causes Thursday, September 17, 2020. He was 82.

Rucklick played for the Wildcats from 1956-59 and was an All-American as a senior. The 6-foot-10 center said he was better known as a “walking footnote.”

He was proud to have taken part in one of the NBA’s most iconic moments — assisting on Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain’s 99th and 100th points in a record-setting game for the Philadelphia Warriors on March 2, 1962, against the New York Knicks.

“I was wide open,” Ruklick recalled in a 2016 interview with the Chicago Tribune. “I’m looking at the New York players who will not yield. I don’t know what I thought, but I knew I had to get the ball to Wilt. There were 46 seconds to go, and there’s a guy hanging on his left hip. He went, ‘Woo!’ and that meant he was open briefly. There were his hands, and I got the ball to him. And he scored.”

Ruklick said he patiently waited by the scorer’s table to make sure his assist was properly recorded.

Ruklick, a Princeton, Illinois, native, averaged 19.9 points and 13.2 rebounds in three seasons at Northwestern — including 23 and 13 in 1958-59. The Warriors selected Ruklick in the second round (ninth overall) of the 1959 draft, and he played sparingly in three seasons. He said the pay was lousy and he morally objected to team owners wanting to keep him on the roster to appease fans who didn’t want too many Black players at the time.

“Many of them didn’t think there would be more than a handful of Black players every year,” he told the Tribune. “They thought: ‘Chamberlain is a freak. We’ll never see another Bill Russell.’ That’s how dumb we were back then. People were ugly sometimes. But it was as common as the morning sunshine.”

Chamberlain and Ruklick, who had played against each other in college when Chamberlain was at Kansas, remained friends until Chamberlain’s death in 1999.

After his NBA career, Ruklick became an investment banker and a father of three. He earned a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern at 50, later working at newspapers such as the Chicago Defender. Ruklick lived in Evanston and often attended Northwestern games as a reporter for the Aurora Voice.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-northwestern-basketball-joe-ruklick-dies-20200917-n5rpc7t5j5d47lc4ntmn5xcow4-story.html

1960s Featured Legacies Legacies

Loren “Marty” Hintz (MSJ68)

Post author By Jude Cramer
Post date September 28, 2020
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Loren Martin “Marty” Hintz passed away on Sunday, September 20, 2020, in his home surrounded by his family. He was 75. Marty dedicated his life to traveling and writing — learning as much as he could about the world, and sharing the stories with others.

“He was an incredibly expansive human being,” his son Daniel Hintz said, “and just had a zest for life that was really quite infectious.”

Daniel remembers his father, a “prolific storyteller,” was always looking for his next adventure. The publisher of the Irish American Post newspaper, Marty also wrote more than 125 books, his family says, and was Irish Fest’s first publicist.

Hintz grew up in the small Iowa farm town of New Hampton and studied journalism at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota and at Northwestern University, then worked at the Milwaukee Sentinel.

He later became a freelance writer, his inquisitive spirit never fading. When the family went out to a restaurant, Hintz would pepper the waitress with questions, his son remembers.

“He was constantly mining for stories, constantly mining for ideas for the next adventure,” Daniel Hintz said.

Marty overflowed with tales of his travels and his latest projects — but his most meaningful, his son believes, was his journey to find his father’s downed plane in Italy.

Loren Hintz, a fighter pilot, died at 27 when his plane crashed in Italy just before the end of World War II. Marty Hintz was born six weeks later.

He endeavored to know the father he never met, undertaking years of research and digs to find the plane.

When he died, Hintz was producing a documentary about his family’s 2017 successful search for the plane. His family is now working to raise money to complete it in his honor.

Hintz’s friends from Italy, Ireland and around the world have been reaching out to his family since his death, recalling his kind nature and love of storytelling. Daniel Hintz said he’s gotten at least 500 messages from those who knew him.

Hintz is survived by his wife, Pam Percy, his children Daniel (Kassie) Hintz, Steve (Rashauna) Hintz, Katie (Garrick Topp) Hintz; step-children Matthew (Jennifer) Segel, Katie (Matt Liban) Segel, Ross (Abby) Segel; and 19 grandchildren.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2020/09/27/marty-hintz-dies-75-friends-family-recall-love-travel-stories/3526457001/

1950s Featured Legacies Legacies

Kathleen K. Naureckas (BSJ58)

Post author By Jude Cramer
Post date October 15, 2020
No Comments on Kathleen K. Naureckas (BSJ58)

Kathleen Naureckas, 83, passed away on Wednesday, September 30, 2020, in Oak Park, Illinois. She was born October 12, 1936, in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania.

Kathleen received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern in 1958, and went on to get a master’s degree in English literature, also from Northwestern. She was the managing editor of the weekly Libertyville Herald and served on the editorial staff of the Chicago Tribune until her retirement. Kathleen was an avid reader and a poet, having published one book of poems titled “For the Duration,” with another poetry book, “Winter Ecology,” under publication. After retirement, she played saxophone for the New Horizons Band and enjoyed playing bridge and watching movies.

Kathleen is survived by her daughter, Karen (Rick) Christiansen; her two sons, Dr. Ted (Dr. Sara) and Jim (Janine Jackson) Naureckas; her six grandchildren, Dr. Lauren (Matthew) Lindquist, Sean Christiansen, Dr. Caitlin (Dr. Edward) Li, Dr. Patrick (Lauren Heeg), June and Eden Naureckas; her three great-grandchildren, Ethan, Reid and Collin Lindquist; her sister, Marie Zelenka; her brothers, Thomas and Patrick Kearney; and her beloved cat, Rosie.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Adeline and Christopher Kearney; her husband, Edward Naureckas; their young daughter, Barbara Naureckas; her brothers Jim and John Kearney; and her sister Adele Kearney.

https://www.burnettdane.com/obituaries/Kathleen-Naureckas/#!/Obituary

1990s Featured Legacies Legacies

Rickey L. Wedeking (GJ95)

Post author By Jude Cramer
Post date October 15, 2020
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Rickey Lee Wedeking passed away on Wednesday, September 30, 2020. He was born on January 19, 1962, in Indianapolis to Dr. Fred L. Wedeking and Denise O. Wedeking.

Rickey began regaling crowds at an early age with his infectious smile and impish nature. With initial aspirations to follow in his father’s footsteps, Rickey obtained his paramedic degree from Kalamazoo Valley Community College in 1980, the youngest to receive such a degree at that time. He then worked for Emmett and RNEMS Ambulance services and on his first run delivered a baby. Rickey next attended Michigan State University to study marketing, graduating in 1986. During his time as a Spartan, Rickey was very active with the Sigma Chi fraternity. Post graduation, Rickey started his own marketing firm in Kalamazoo, Different Dimensions, Inc. He later owned and operated Plainwell Printing and then acquired his real estate broker’s license to sell houses in the Kalamazoo area.

Eventually, Rickey wanted to return to school, and he enrolled in Northwestern University’s marketing communications program. He graduated in 1995 with his graduate degree cum laude as class valedictorian. Rickey’s next adventure took him to Newport Beach, California, where he was employed in marketing research by Urban Science. He became president of the local chapter of the American Marketing Association. When not at work, Rickey loved his oceanside life and spent many weekends surfing, sailing and ambling around his beloved Catalina Island.

Rickey lived life to the fullest, living large and loving hard, enjoying the arts, the bars, fine dining, the study of history and the Bible, world travel and, of course, his family. Rickey’s focus changed to healing and fighting after his diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 1998. Rickey was always positive through tough times and willing to embrace his next battle. He and his family are especially thankful to all those at Alamo Nursing Home, his second family, who cared, laughed, loved and prayed with and for Rickey during his most challenging times.

Rickey’s memory is still alive in those that survive him, including his parents, sister Tammy (Sue) and her husband, Steve Withers; brother Ritch Wedeking; aunts Nancy Wedeking and Peggy White; uncles Jeff Neel, Dickson Matos and family, Kilton Matos and family; many more beloved family in Puerto Rico; nephew Karsen Withers; niece Taryn Withers; and cousin Michelle Neel.

https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/18473734/Rickey-Wedeking

1990s Featured Legacies Legacies

Matthew T. Gamber (MSJ97)

Post author By Jude Cramer
Post date October 22, 2020
No Comments on Matthew T. Gamber (MSJ97)

Fr. Matthew T. Gamber S.J., age 61, passed away Friday, October 16, 2020, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Matt was a graduate of Loyola Academy, and received a bachelor’s in political science from Marquette University, a master’s in philosophy from Loyola University, a master’s of divinity from Weston Jesuit School of Theology, and a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. Father Matt was a gifted journalist, and was published in the National Catholic Register, Catholic World Report and Catholic Herald. He was most recently appointed chaplain and director of youth ministry at St. Xavier High School. Previously, he was associate pastor at St. Francis Xavier Church in Cincinnati, and he enjoyed a lifelong career in the religious order including positions in Chicago, Gonzaga University in Washington, Xavier University in Cincinnati, and in the Vatican Radio and Catholic News Service in Rome, Italy.

Father Matt loved being a priest, and a channel of God’s healing graces and love for the people he served. He led a profoundly spiritual life, dedicated to his faith, his family, the Society of Jesus, and his many friends. Known for his hearty laugh and inquisitive spirit, Father Matt was beloved by many and enjoyed connecting with people wherever he went.

Matt was preceded in death by his father Mark J. and brother Lawrence M. Gamber. He is survived by his mother Ruth Ann (nee Henneman) Gamber; siblings Mark (MaryJo), William (Linda), Mary Margaret, and Robert (Suzan) Gamber; sister-in-law Carol Gamber; nieces and nephews Matthew (Alexandra), Casey, Charlie, Jamie, Mary Kate and Luke Gamber; and great nephew Benjamin.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicagotribune/obituary.aspx?n=matthew-t-gamber&pid=196973475

1950s Featured Legacies Legacies

Kenneth M. Wylie, Jr. (BSJ51, MSJ52)

Post author By Jude Cramer
Post date October 28, 2020
No Comments on Kenneth M. Wylie, Jr. (BSJ51, MSJ52)

Kenneth M. Wylie, Jr. (J 51, MSJ 52) died on June 1, 2020, at his home in Evanston following a long illness. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, the former Sarah Hibbard, and three daughters: Clarissa Wylie Youngberg, Mary Barr Wylie and Jennifer Sundy Fallon.

Ken was born 93 years ago in southwestern Pennsylvania. He moved as a child to the Chicago area and later to Tidewater Virginia. He served in the army from 1945 to 1947, spending 1946 in the U.S. zone of Germany as a radio technician/operator.

After graduating from Medill, Ken’s work was in magazine editing and reporting, university publications work (Northwestern and IIT), freelance editorial work, industrial technical writing, public relations and advertising. He was devoted to his church (First Presbyterian Church of Evanston) and to his community, serving frequently as an officer of the Kiwanis Club of Evanston Breakfast. During the 1960s he was among the founders of the Evanston Ecumenical Action Council, now known as Interfaith Action of Evanston. He published his novel, “Driving to Mercer,” in 2017.

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