User:Smallbones/Morhange

Edmund J. Rooney, Jr. (June 24, 1924 - January 27, 2007) worked as a reporter on the Chicago Daily News for 26 years and was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 1957 for an investigation into state auditor Orville Hodge, who was convicted of embezzlement. Despite not having a college degree, Rooney taught journalism part-time at Loyola University starting in 1956. He earned an undergraduate degree in 1977 and when the Daily News closed in 1978, he taught full time while continuing taking classes. He earned a masters degree in 1982 and a doctoral degree in education in 1992.

Father Chicago Police Chief Edmund Rooney, mother Betsy

A 26-year veteran of the Chicago Daily News who earned a doctoral degree in education and taught journalism at Loyola University, Dr. Rooney had a reputation as a tenacious reporter who got to sources first and wouldn't take no for an answer.

"He was a personality that stood out. He had a big voice, and he was very straight ahead," said Daily News colleague Bob Herguth. "He hated to get beaten on anything."

Smith Village in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood.

An old-fashioned street reporter who worked out of a car equipped with a police scanner and a two-way radio to his city desk. His days started with pre-dawn telephone calls, and on his way to work he often would stop by Mayor Richard J. Daley's house in Bridgeport for quotes. Most of his stories were called in to rewrite men in the office.

"Eddie was very concise, and he was an excellent judge of breaking news," said Phillip J. O'Connor, who for years took Dr. Rooney's notes at the Daily News. "He knew what was important and what was not important. He wouldn't waste your time."

Always kept a packed suitcase in the trunk of his car, ready to be sent on assignment. "His motto was, `I'm on my way,' " Herguth said.

In 1965, Dr. Rooney was at the civil rights march led by Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.. In 1969, he spent several weeks in Massachusetts, after U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy drove his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, killing his female companion.

In the early 1970s, Dr. Rooney and his family were sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner when the phone rang. It was the newspaper alerting him to a prison riot out of town.

six children.

Dr. Rooney started the National Center of Freedom of Information at Loyola in 1982. The center served as a clearinghouse for reporters and others interested in 1st Amendment issues. He continued to teach through the late 1990s.

The son and grandson of Chicago police officers, Dr. Rooney spent most of his childhood in the St. Columbanus Parish on the South Side. Smitten with newspapers from a young age, he and a friend put out pencilled copies of a neighborhood newspaper, and he was on the school paper staff at St. Rita High School. Years later, he was named to St. Rita's Hall of Fame for his accomplishments in journalism and education.

He worked as a copy boy at the old Chicago Sun newspaper and took classes at Loyola University before being drafted into the Army during World War II. A medic and clerk, he served in North Africa and Italy, taking part on the invasion at Anzio.

After the war, Dr. Rooney worked at the Southtown Economist, now the Daily Southtown, and spent a year at the City News Bureau wire service before joining the Daily News in early 1952. He married Mary Flynn in 1956 and in 1959 spent a year at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow. all six of Dr. Rooney's children graduated from Loyola. Three went on to become reporters in Chicago.

Fellow Pulitzer Prize winner Mike Royko, inscribed a copy of his book "Boss," lauded his Daily News colleague as "one of the greatest door-kickers this town has ever seen. And that, for other eyes, ain't an accolade we toss around lightly."

school newspaper, The Ritan, while attending St. Rita High School. In 1941, worked as a midnight copy boy for the Chicago Sun.

• in 1942, he enrolled at Loyola University

Chicago and took an evening English class.

• in January 1943,

was drafted into the U.S. Army as a combat medic for the Medical Administration Corps. He served in Africa and Italy for 27 months in the 33rd Field Hospital and 88th Infantry Division.

• 1944 Anzio invasion. While in Rome in 1945, he

wrote for Army newspaper Stars and Stripes.

• After returning home, Rooney enrolled at

DePaul University and wrote for their newspaper. However, he was unable to graduate with a degree. Instead he became a reporter for the Southtown Economist in 1947. Two years later, he left to write for the City News Bureau of Chicago.

In May 1952, Rooney joined the Chicago Daily News. In 1957 he won the

Pulitzer Prize for exposing the corruption of Illinois state auditor Orville Hodge.

• Rooney was known as a “door kicker” who reported on a

plethora of stories.

• He reported on notable events such as the 1965 Selma to

Montgomery Civil Rights March, the violent 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention, the Chappaquiddick incident, the 1971 New York and New Jersey prison uprisings, and he was the first to write an exclusive on mass murderer Richard Speck in 1976.

• From 1959-1960 Rooney was a Nieman Fellow studying state and local

government affairs at Harvard University.

• In 1963, Rooney received a phone call from

AP city editor Carroll Arimond informing him that he was retiring from teaching the evening journalism class at Loyola. Rooney was offered his position and he gladly accepted. He began teaching Intro to Journalism for the English and Communication Arts Department in the Evening Division every Wednesday night. He continued to teach part-time until 1974, when Rooney was promoted to Adjunct Professor.

In 1977, Rooney graduated from Loyola with a B.A. in political science and

minors in criminal justice and sociology. After over twenty-five years of reporting for the Chicago Daily News, the paper folded, and Rooney was appointed assistant professor in September 1978.

• Also beginning that year, Rooney became a special assistant for

Public Relations at St. Xavier College and a consultant at the Illinois Department of Law Enforcement. He maintained both of these positions until 1982. In 1981, Rooney received an M.A. in urban studies from Loyola University. Also that year, he was an interim associate editor for The Quill.

• In November 1982, Rooney was responsible for

co-founding the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi chapter at Loyola. It was the first chapter in the Chicago area and its purpose was to bring together aspiring and professional journalists to study communication topics together.

• In December 1982, Rooney founded the National Center for Freedom of

Information Studies at Loyola. It was a non-profit, non-partisan institution “that conducted research and served as a resource for the press, public, and the government with regard to access to public records and government.” In 1989, the Center received a grant from the Chicago Tribune to conduct a study on the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. Rooney led the study and concluded in 1991, that the Illinois FOI Act had many flaws and needed revision.

• On February 7, 1992 Rooney was inducted into the Chicago Journalism Hall of

Fame. In May of that year, he received his Ed.D. from Loyola after writing his dissertation, “News Media Coverage of the Tet Offensive (1968: Historical Evaluation as an Educational Tool)”. Fifty years after taking his first class at Loyola, he earned the title of Dr. Rooney.

• In 1993, Rooney retired from his full-time teaching position but continued to

teach part-time and direct the FOI Center. He also continued freelance writing, media consulting, and was president of the Illinois Freedom of Information Council. In 1994, Rooney returned to Italy with 16 members of the Anzio Beachhead Veterans of World War II Association for the 50th anniversary of the January 22, 1944 Allied invasion of south Rome. He was greeted with much fanfare and wrote of his experience for the Chicago Sun-Times. He also received numerous awards from the Illinois Press Association, Inland Press Association, John Howard Association, Northwest Press Club, and Chicago Patrolmen’s Association.

• died at age 82 on January 27, 2007, in his home in Chicago.