LONGTIME CHICAGO TV NEWS ANCHOR DICK JOHNSON DIES AT 66
Veteran NBC 5 anchor Dick Johnson, a trusted voice in Chicago TV news, died Tuesday at 66.
“I am stunned to tell you all that Dick Johnson passed away this morning,” Frank Whittaker, the station manager and vice president of news, told NBC 5’s staff Tuesday. “Dick was being treated at a hospital in northern Michigan the last several days for complications related to a respiratory condition. Because of that condition, Dick had gone to northern Michigan in early March after the advent of COVID-19.
“He loved working here, and he exuded that,” Whittaker told the Sun-Times. “He couldn’t wait to get back and cover the big story.”
Johnson had pulmonary fibrosis, according to an NBC video tribute.
Carol Marin, political editor for NBC 5 and a correspondent for WTTW-Channel 11’s “Chicago Tonight,” said on Twitter that Johnson was “the best kind of newsman. Smart, thorough, nimble when deadlines were crashing around him. No cliches. Just facts, fairness and great writing. And he was funny!”
In a business in which deadlines and ratings pressures can erode the niceties, he was known for being a team player and taking the time to say thank you. Johnson often extended himself to fledgling reporters.
Whittaker said countless NBC staffers told him Johnson offered them behind-the-scenes guidance and support.
“Our newsroom is heartbroken,” NBC 5 political reporter Mary Ann Ahern tweeted. “Dick Johnson loved it all — curious, fantastic storyteller and a kind colleague. There are tears for his loss, knowing Dick was the real deal; mentor to so many, a news soldier.”
“When I got to channel 5 in 2011, I was completely green,” tweeted Laurence Holmes, a sports-talk host at 670 The Score. “Dick Johnson went out of his way to make me feel welcomed. He was a brilliant journalist. He was a wonderfully generous man. He was my friend, and I will miss him very much.”
NBC veteran Art Norman praised Johnson for his incisive reporting on Chicago’s African American neighborhoods.
“He was very comfortable in the black community,” Norman said, adding that when his colleague was reporting on the street, neighborhood residents sometimes referred to him as “Brother Johnson.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot tweeted condolences from her family: “Amy and I are saddened to learn of Dick Johnson’s passing. Dick was always a true gentleman and professional. His passion for journalism and the craft of a great story was unmatched.”
“Chicago has lost a journalism giant,” ABC 7 reporter Rob Elgas said on Twitter.
“Dick was one of the best in the business,” former WBBM-AM morning anchor Felicia Middlebrooks tweeted. “A real gentleman.”
Johnson had been part of a Peabody Award-winning reporting team with Marin at the Chicago NBC station and also was honored with national Emmys and a DuPont-Columbia award for his work.
On March 19, he posted an explanation on Facebook for being off the air and in northern Michigan, a region he loved: “My apologies for disappearing from NBC Chicago so suddenly. Like so many, I had no other choice. The coronavirus, my age and a respiratory issue prompted my doctors to send me packing. So here we are, settled in ‘up north’ and riding this out as safely as possible.”
Asked whether the coronavirus was a factor in his death, Whittaker said, “I don’t believe that was the issue here. He had this lung issue. He had an infection at the end.”
Johnson, who joined NBC in 2002, most recently co-anchored WMAQChannel 5’s weekend evening news shows. He moved there from WLSChannel 7, where he’d been an anchor and reporter for 20 years.
“He had an incredible work ethic,” ABC 7 veteran Paul Meincke said. Despite grueling early hours, Johnson “chose the morning gig at 7 before he went to 5.”
Even when anchoring, “He’d stick around and somehow find a way to play a role” in the reporting of big stories, according to Meincke, who also praised his thorough research and preparation. After the Cook County state’s attorney’s office dropped charges against actor Jussie Smollett — who’d reported he’d been the target of a hate crime — Johnson did a wide-ranging interview with a representative of the prosecutor’s office.
“His questions were just spot on,” Meincke said. “It was 15 minutes of grueling, honest, really good questioning from Dick. He prepared himself very well. He did his homework.”
When he walked in the newsroom each day, assignment editors and executive producers knew they could count on his reporting to deepen developing stories. “He could turn something out of nothing,” said NBC 5 reporter Phil Rogers.
Even while doggedly focused on a story, “He was never in a bad mood,” Rogers said. “He was always the most jovial guy in the newsroom.”
To reflect his team spirit after moving to Channel 5, Rogers said, Johnson got a new phone number and license plate. He said Johnson changed them to make sure they included the number “5.”
NBC said Johnson “was on board Air Force Two with then-Vice President George H.W. Bush during the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.” Other major stories he covered included the release of American hostages held by Iran, the Ethiopian famine and the case of serial killer Andrew Cunanan, whose victims included fashion designer Gianni Versace and Chicago real estate developer Lee Miglin.
Also, according to the NBC station, “Dick broke the story of the ‘Great Loop Flood.’ ”
Johnson appeared in the movie “Barbershop 2” and on the NBC TV show “Chicago Fire.”
He received a political science degree from DePauw University, where he worked as news director of the college radio station WGRE.
Johnson is survived by his wife, Lauren, three children and two grandchildren.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration got the go-ahead Tuesday to acquire land in the Pilsen Industrial corridor to build a new salt operations center for the Department of Streets and Sanitation amid warnings that “not a dollar be spent” until black contractors are involved at every level.
The new salt center serving the Central Business District and Lake Shore Drive would be at 1635 S. Canal St. That’s where the city plans to acquire seven contiguous parcels and combine them with adjacent city-owned land at 1616 S. Stewart. Together with an alley in between, the land would pave the way to build a 47,700-square-foot facility.
It would replace a 59,463-square-foot facility at 1604 S. Clark St. that Robert McKenna, assistant commissioner of Planning and Development, called inefficient and incompatible with the fast-growing area.
“The existing Streets and Sanitation facility on Clark Street consists of a one-story metal shed and a long but narrow parking strip which is not efficient for truck storage or operations,” McKenna told the City Council’s Housing Committee Tuesday.
“The existing facility and the truck traffic it generates is also becoming incompatible with the surrounding neighborhood, which is increasingly residential and commercial. The current DSS facility sits directly across Clark Street from Mariano’s. And The 78, a mostly residential development, is located directly north of the current DSS facility.”
While the salt operations facility has become “less and less compatible with its neighborhood,” McKenna said the property could be “offered for redevelopment through a request for proposals” after a “neighborhood planning process to determine the best use” for the site.
“The future land sale proceeds and subsequent real estate tax revenue that would be generated by the development could offset the cost of building a new Streets and Sanitation facility in the Pilsen industrial corridor,” he said.
Before the final vote, Ald. David Moore (17th) demanded to know the “diversity plan” for involving black contractors and professional service people at all levels of the project.
“We haven’t started that process at all. All of that would start after we get the acquisition authority for the site,” McKenna said. Moore stood his ground.
“I don’t want a dollar spent until they come to the Contract and Oversight and Equity Committee and they announce who’s getting what . . . . Not a dollar spent until that happens,” Moore said.
♦ Also Tuesday, the Housing Committee approved a $1 million grant from the city’s Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund to the Inner-City Muslim Action Network.
The money — year one of a three-year program — would be used to provide affordable housing, construction training and apprenticeship programs for 40 ex-offenders on weekdays and 20 men and women on the weekends.
Ald. Michael Rodriguez (22nd) said he got to know IMAN’s Rami Nashashibi during his “previous engagement” as executive director of a nonprofit.
“They are the best of us. They do amazing work . . . . They do the work that many wish they could do,” Rodriguez said.
♦ Housing Committee Chairman Harry Osterman (48th) recessed Tuesday’s meeting until 1 p.m. Monday. At that time, Osterman said he expects to take up what he called an “eviction protection ordinance” directly introduced to committee by Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Osterman promised to share a copy of the ordinance with members of his committee before that meeting.