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By BOB GOLDSBOROUGH Chicago Tribune
Henry W. “Hank” De Zutter was equal parts journalist, activist, college instructor and provocateur, with a deep desire to further racial equality and a practitioner’s skill at communicating his ideas clearly.
A longtime instructor and lecturer at Chicago’s Malcolm X College who early in his career was an education reporter for the Chicago Daily News, De Zutter co-founded both the Chicago Journalism Review and the Community Media Workshop.
“Like Studs Terkel, Hank knew how to listen to sources in a way that put them at ease to tell their story better,” said Thom Clark, who co-founded the Community Media Workshop with De Zutter in 1989.
De Zutter, 80, died on July 14 of complications from a fall that he suffered on July 10 in his Lincoln Park apartment, said his daughter, Amanda Kotlyar.
Born Henry Wayne De Zutter in Chicago, De Zutter grew up in Skokie and Northbrook and graduated in 1959 from Glenbrook High School, where he was captain of the golf team, editor of the school newspaper and class valedictorian. He studied at Williams College in Massachusetts before receiving a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1963.
De Zutter worked as a reporter for the Lerner Newspapers chain while earning a master’s degree in journalism in 1965 from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
De Zutter and his first wife, Janet Jonjack, enlisted in the federal Volunteers in Service to America, or VISTA, program, training in the South Bronx and then working as community organizers in Baltimore.
In the spring of 1967, the Chicago Daily News hired De Zutter as an education reporter. The following year, he helped found the Chicago Journalism Review, a short-lived but influential publication spawned in response to what he and other journalists felt was heavily pro-police coverage during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
In 1970, De Zutter joined the staff of Malcolm X College, working for the next several decades as an English and journalism instructor while also teaching classes at times at Truman College and at Columbia College.
“I think his most important accomplishment was that of mentor to so many second-chance students and the untiring support he provided aspiring journalists of color,” Clark said.
In 1989, De Zutter and Clark formed the Community Media Workshop, a foundation-funded effort to help community-based organizations get better press and tell their stories directly to a wider audience.
Under their leadership, the organization, which now is called Public Narrative, helped community groups write news releases and deal with the media and published a detailed directory of Chicago’s journalists and media organizations.
For years, De Zutter freelanced for the Chicago Reader, writing long stories for its “Neighborhood News” column. From 1991 until 1996, De Zutter and Clark interviewed and photographed people on the street for their weekly “Snap Judgments” column.
“During his years with the Reader, we’d often cover the same stories — planning for the never-held 1992 World’s Fair, public housing demolitions, big urban renewal projects,” recalled former Tribune reporter and columnist John McCarron. “Hank took a bottom-up approach — how does it affect folks already living (in a community) — but with empathy, not the up-against-City-Hall self-righteousness so common with the neighborhood left.”
In 1995, De Zutter wrote a cover story for the Reader titled “What Makes Obama Run?,” which was the first in-depth look at future President Barack Obama as he ran for state Senate.
“Hank made an unknown guy known to me and a lot of other people in Chicago,” said retired Chicago Reader senior editor Michael Miner. “It put (Obama) on the map.”
In 1978, De Zutter wrote a 30-minute TV documentary that aired on WBBM-Ch. 2 about youths playing basketball on the streets of the South Side in the late 1970s. Titled “Going Up Easy, Coming Down Hard,” the documentary included a look at the early careers of streetball stars and future professional basketball players Billy Harris and Sonny Parker.
In 1992, De Zutter and his second wife, Pamela Little De Zutter, who collaborated several times on articles for the Reader, were featured in Terkel’s book “Race: What Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession” due to the fact that theirs was an interracial marriage.
“I don’t even see dirty looks given to us. When we go out together, people seem happy to see us,” De Zutter told Terkel in the book. “I feel people see us as a symbol of change and hope, especially when we have our blended family.”
A jazz aficionado, De Zutter reviewed the 10th annual Chicago Jazz Festival in Grant Park in the Tribune in September 1988. Five years later, De Zutter wrote a children’s book, “Who Says a Dog Goes Bow-Wow?,” which explored how animal sounds are expressed in various different languages.
“What we see is so often determined by what we say, or are taught to hear,” De Zutter told the Tribune upon the book’s launch.
De Zutter retired from Malcolm X College in 2002, and from the Community Media Workshop in 2004.
De Zutter’s first two marriages ended in divorce. In addition to his daughter, De Zutter is survived by his third wife, Barbara Belletini Fields; two sons, Max and Chris; a stepson, Agward “Eddie” Turner; two stepdaughters, Jayne Mattson and Ana Boyer Davis; two sisters, Joyce Mooneyham and Wendy Callahan; five grandchildren; and four stepgrandchildren.
A private memorial service is being planned.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 2, 2024 Contact Information: Illinois Region 3: Mutual Aid Team Dr. Patrick M. Twomey 309-229-9093 c4ol.twomey@gmail.com
United States Rural School Safety Project: Conducting a first of its kind, full scale regional response parent-student reunification exercise
MACOMB, Illinois – The Illinois Region 3: Mutual Aid Team will conduct a full-scale regional response reunification exercise at Western Illinois University on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. The exercise will commence at 11:30 a.m. Parents, media outlets, and exercise participants will be stationed in Q lot directly east of Western Hall located on University Drive. There will be electronic signage directing all media outlets to a predetermined staging area. Separate signage will direct parents to their appropriate parking location, while dignitaries and invited observers will go directly to the Emergency Operations Center located at the east end of Q lot just in front of Tanner Hall. The goal is to reunite approximately 430 students with their parents or guardians between the hours of 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. In addition, there are a significant number of state, county, and local personnel and organizations practicing and participating in this exercise. Organizations include local, county, and state law enforcement, hospitals, fire departments, emergency services, disaster agencies, State Police K-9 Unit, Salvation Army, and the American Red Cross, as well as others. The United States Rural School Safety Project was created to assist rural schools in tabletop exercise trainings and the formation of regional mutual aid teams. The tabletop exercises are designed to improve each individual school district’s crisis responses, while additional trainings create a prepared regional response to any district experiencing a catastrophic event. The Illinois Region 3 Team has been training together for more than two years. A calm and organized reunification process after a critical school incident is paramount and marks the beginning of the recovery phase. Parents, students, staff members, and the community at large must be assured that a well-designed plan in conjunction with a highly trained team is ready and prepared to respond at all times.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 1, 2024 Contact Information: Sherry Sejnost, program chair irc@illinoisreadingcouncil.org
ILLINOIS READS! A Reading State of Mind www.illinoisreads.org and www.illinoisreadingcouncil.org www.facebook.com/IllinoisReads www.twitter.com/IllinoisReads #IllinoisReads #IRCReads Illinois Reading Council's 2025 Illinois Reads book list will be featured at the IRC Conference on March 13-14, 2025, and the Illinois Reads Book Festival on April 26, 2025
The Illinois Reading Council (IRC) has just released the list of Illinois Reads books for 2025. Illinois Reads is a statewide program that promotes reading for all Illinois citizens. The program promotes six books in six different age bands by authors and illustrators who have ties to Illinois. The books range from read-to books for infants to books for adult readers. Bookmarks and posters highlighting the Illinois Reads books will be available in early 2025. Order early as supplies are limited! The Illinois Reads Program will be featured at the annual IRC Conference in Springfield on March 13-14, 2025. Conference registration is now open for educators, librarians, and others interested in promoting literacy. The 2025 Illinois Reads Program will also be featured at the Illinois Reads Book Festival in Jacksonville on April 26, 2025. Readers throughout Illinois are invited to this free family event. Visit our websites to find out about other upcoming Illinois Reads events.
The Illinois Reads book selections for 2025 are: Birth-4 Can You Dance Like a Peacock? by Rekha S. Rajan Hide-and-Seek by Molly Cranch Moms Can Do It All! by Ted Maass Sleepy: Surprising Ways Animals Snooze by Jennifer Ward Painting the Sky with Love: A Celebration of Love and Community by Mary E. Haque Play Outside with Me by Kat Chen K-2 Bats Beneath the Bridge by Janet Nolan Love Grows by Ruth Spiro Somebody Needs to Do Something About That Monster! by Doug Cenko The Ghost Who Was Afraid of Everything by Nadia Ahmed The Heartbeat Drum: The Story of Carol Powder, Cree Drummer and Activist by Deidre Havrelock and illustrated by Aphelandra Umami by Jacob Grant 3-5 Cloud Puppy by Kelly Leigh Miller Detective Sweet Pea: The Case of the Golden Bone by Sara Varon It Belongs to the World: Frederick Banting and the Discovery of Insulin by Lisa Katzenberger Legendarios: Wrath of the Rain God by Karla Arenas Valenti One Cool Duck #1: King of Cool by Mike Petrik The Great Lakes: Our Freshwater Treasure by Barb Rosenstock 6-8 Forget-Me-Not Blue by Sharelle Byars Moranville I Felt Myself Slipping by Ray Nadine Kareem Between by Shifa Saltagi Safadi Rare Birds by Jeff Miller Stage Fright by Wendy Parris The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D. Schmidt 9-12 American Wings: Chicago’s Pioneering Black Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky by Sherri L. Smith and Elizabeth Wein Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao Last On His Feet: Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century by Youssef Daoudi and Adrian Matejka This Book Won’t Burn by Samira Ahmed This Night Is Ours by Ronni Davis We Shall Be Monsters: A Novel by Alyssa Wees Adult By Water Beneath the Walls: The Rise of the Navy SEALs by Benjamin H. Milligan Star Wars Dad Jokes: The Best Worst Jokes and Puns from a Galaxy Far, Far Away . . . . by Kelly Knox and illustrated by Johnny Sampson The Best Lies by David Ellis The Great Divide: A Novel by Cristina Henriquez The Wheel of the Year: An Illustrated Guide to Nature’s Rhythms by Fiona Cook Woe: A Housecat’s Story of Despair: (A Graphic Novel) by Lucy Knisley
A special title for 2025 will also be A Love Letter to My Library by Lisa Katzenberger. Illinois Reads is a statewide literacy program provided by the Illinois Reading Council, a nonprofit organization with nearly 2,000 members across Illinois. The mission of the Illinois Reading Council is to provide support and leadership to all who promote and teach lifelong literacy. Book lists from 2013 to 2025 may be found on the Illinois Reads website. For more information, visit our websites at www.IllinoisReads.org and www.IllinoisReadingCouncil.org.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 1, 2024 Contact Information: Alison Maley, government and public relations director Phone: 217-299-3122 alison@ilprincipals.org
Illinois Principals Association to host 'Legacy Builders' Conference in October
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois - The Illinois Principals Association (IPA) will host its 53rd Education Leaders Annual Conference, “Legacy Builders,” Oct. 20-22, 2024, in Peoria. The event will feature keynote speakers, breakout sessions, and networking opportunities to help school leaders enhance their impact on schools and communities. 2024-2025 IPA President Cris Edwards shared, “We’re excited to welcome Illinois school leaders to this year’s conference, offering inspiring speakers and opportunities to celebrate the legacy they bring to their schools.” The conference kicks off Sunday with a golf tournament, committee meetings, and a welcome reception honoring past IPA presidents. Keynote speakers include: Dr. Stanley Leone, Jr., CEO of This Side of Hope, will open Monday with his session “The HeArt of Teaching and The Science of Relationships.” Dr. Leone will share his personal journey from a traumatic childhood to success, emphasizing how relationships within schools transformed his life. A Certified Clinical Trauma Professional and award-winning speaker, Dr. Leone has shared his story with more than a million people. Cris Edwards, 2024-2025 IPA president and Dr. Jason Leahy, IPA executive director, will speak Monday afternoon. IPA Awards for Excellence, Herman Graves Award, Reaching Out & Building Bridges Award, and the Mr. John Ourth & Dr. Fred W. Singleton Professional Development Scholarships will also be presented at this session. Monica Genta, author and educator, will deliver a keynote Tuesday morning titled “180 Days of Awesome – Celebrating Every Day of Education.” With 14 years of teaching experience, Genta will inspire leaders to turn each school day into an exciting adventure. She is the author of five books, including “180 Days of Awesome,” and is a National Board Certified Teacher. Illinois State Superintendent Dr. Tony Sanders will speak on Tuesday, addressing the state of education in Illinois and sharing insights with school leaders. Additionally, Tuesday’s IGNITE session will feature fast-paced presentations from notable principals, including Allan Davenport (Granger Middle School), Dr. Lisa Carlos (Plainfield Elementary School), Charles Williams (Michele Clark Academic Prep Magnet High School), and IPA President-Elect Dr. Angie Codron (Normal West High School). Each will share their unique perspectives on school leadership in 5-minute bursts. The conference will conclude with IPA Deputy Executive Director Brian Schwartz and Government Relations Director Alison Maley providing updates on new education-related laws passed during the 2024 Illinois Legislative Session, offering insights on how school leaders can stay informed and advocate for their schools. For more information about the IPA or to register to attend, please visit ilprincipals.org.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 30, 2024 Contact Information: Alison Maley, government and public relations director Phone: 217-299-3122 alison@ilprincipals.org
Illinois Principals Association encourages principal appreciation in October
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois – The Illinois Principals Association (IPA) encourages communities to celebrate Principal Appreciation Week October 20-26, 2024, and Principal Appreciation Day on October 25 to highlight the dedication of principals, assistant principals, and deans. This annual recognition has been recognized by Illinois governors since 1990. October is also National Principals Month, supported by the IPA, National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), and the American Federation of School Administrators (AFSA). Cris Edwards, IPA president and principal of Richland County Elementary School in Olney, shared: “Whether this is a principal’s very first year, last year, or somewhere in the middle, Illinois is celebrating these leaders for all they do for children. As ‘legacy builders’ we are constantly mentoring others; helping students to find their voice or their career path, supporting paraprofessionals who want to return to school to become a teacher, and encouraging teachers that are thinking about becoming an administrator. Thank you to all the leaders across Illinois for your unwavering commitment and for building a legacy that will inspire generations to come. I am excited to thank you and celebrate you during National Principals Month!” “This year, we celebrate our state’s school leaders for what they do – build a lasting legacy with those they serve,” said Dr. Jason Leahy, IPA executive director. “These courageous individuals lead their learning organizations with optimism, humility, vision, perseverance, and a deep commitment to do what is best for their students. Both research and common sense tell us how critical these servants are to positively influence young people, teachers, and communities. For this, they deserve our respect and gratitude.” IPA invites teachers, students, parents, and community members to show appreciation for school leaders on October 25.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 23, 2024 Contact Information: Becky Jansen, senior vice president Phone: 217-821-6036 becky@paycourt.com
PayCourt named one of 2024 Best Workplaces in Illinois
PayCourt, a government collections company, has been named one of the Best Workplaces in Illinois for 2024. The company earned a 97% overall score in the workplace assessment. The Best Workplaces in Illinois award is based on an employer questionnaire and employee engagement survey. It examines workplace indicators such as leadership, culture, satisfaction, work environment, training and overall engagement. "We're incredibly proud of this recognition as it's extremely rare for a collection agency to have ever won this award," said Rick Bonitzer, CEO of PayCourt. "Since 2010, we've focused on making our employees the cornerstone of our success, and this award highlights our commitment to fostering a thriving workplace." PayCourt has won the Best Places to Work in Collections award every year since 2019. With more than 900 reviews, the company proudly maintains a 4.9 out of 5.0 Google rating and has also been honored with the Better Business Bureau’s prestigious Torch Award for Ethics. "Our approach has always been to be large enough to ensure maximum results, yet small enough to provide personalized service to every client," Bonitzer said. PayCourt provides government collections for cities, counties, courts, districts, municipalities and parishes; court-related collections for fines, court fees and tickets; and consulting services for Illinois Circuit Court Clerks. For more information, visit www.PayCourt.com. About PayCourt: Re-established under new ownership in 2010, PayCourt blends a digital-first strategy with in-depth courthouse operational expertise, delivering a fully reimagined approach to government collections. The company serves clients across more than three-quarters of Illinois counties, as well as in Indiana and municipal courts in Louisiana. About Best Companies Group: Best Companies Group is an independent research firm that identifies outstanding workplaces through evaluation processes.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 2, 2024 Press Release Contact Information: Damon Schuldt rescue14me@yahoo.com
Illinois Fire Service Conference coming soon
The Illinois Association of Fire Protection Districts (IAFPD) and the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association (IFCA) are pleased to announce their combined conference at the Peoria Civic Center on Sept. 15-18, 2024. Titled the Illinois Fire Service Conference (IFSC), this event spans four days and includes a memorial service honoring fallen firefighters and friends of the fire service, numerous educational classes including nationally know keynote speakers, a large vendor exhibit showcasing equipment and services while supporting the event, along with social networking opportunities, just to name a few. “If you are involved in the fire service in any way, this conference is for you” states Damon Schuldt, IAFPD board member and IFSC Conference co-chair. The IFCA will also host its annual Officer installation Dinner and President’s Reception on Tuesday evening. Added again this year will be opportunities to obtain Emergency Medical continuing education credits and pension board training hours. Ray Larson, deputy fire chief and IFSC Conference co-chair said “Months of planning by many dedicated people has come together to bring high quality educational programs to fire service professionals.” For additional information and to register for the conference, please visit IAFPD.org or illinoisfirechiefs.org The IFSC is a collaborative event sponsored by the IAFPD and the IFCA.
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