WHEREAS, William Recktenwald, retired award-winning journalist with the Chicago Tribune and former Chief Investigator for the Better Government Association of Chicago, is one of three legendary city reporters recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Chicago Headline Club at the 41st Annual Peter Lisagor Awards Dinnes for undercover work on the famous 1978 Mirage Tavern Investigation; and
WHEREAS, The Chicago City Council has been informed of William Recktenwald winning this distinguished award by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and
WHEREAS, Chicago native William Recktenwald attained an Associate of Arts Degree from the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois and attended the National Writers Workshop sponsored by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in various years; and
WHEREAS, William Recktenwald began his professional career as an Investigator with the Cook County State's Attorney's office in 1962, completing four years of service in 1966; and
WHEREAS, In 1967 William Recktenwald joined the staff of the Better Government Association, a non-partisan news organization and civic watchdog agency advocating greater transparency and accountability in Illinois government as a media affairs specialist; and
WHEREAS, While on leave from the Better Government Association in 1974-1975, William Recktenwald served as Chief Investigator on the subcommittee of Long Term Care for the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging; and
WHEREAS, Between November 1971 to March 1978 while serving as Chief Investigator for the Better Government Association, William Recktenwald supervised a staff of more than a dozen investigators uncovering waste and corruption in public agencies, abuses committed by private ambulance companies and nursing homes; and
WHEREAS, Following the completion of his work with the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, William Recktenwald returned to Chicago to join a special investigative team with Chicago Sun-Times reporters Zay Smith and Pam Zekman to produce the award-winning 1978 Mirage Tavern expose, a twenty-five part series probing graft and payoffs at a Wells Street drinking establishment opened by the Sun-Times; and
WHEREAS, William Recktenwald joined the Chicago Tribune as reporter and writer in 1978; and
WHEREAS, From November 1993 through August 1999, William Recktenwald served as Deputy Chicago Bureau Chief, deploying a staff of fifty reporters based at the Tribune Tower to complete editorial assignments; and
WHEREAS, Following retirement in 1999, William Recktenwald accepted appointment as a lecturer and Journalist in Residence at the Southern Illinois University School of Journalism, College of Mass Communication and Media Arts in Carbondale, Illinois; and
WHEREAS, William Recktenwald traveled extensively as a Fulbright Senior Specialist on Uganda and other nations; and
WHEREAS, While in Sri Lanka in 2004 William Recktenwald filed a first-person report after the deadly tsunami engulfed his waterfront hotel; and
WHEREAS, In 2011 William Recktenwald became the first non-tenured instructor to become president of the Southern Illinois University faculty; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and the members of the Chicago City Council assembled this twenty-seventh day of June, 2018, do hereby congratulate William Recktenwald on receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Headline Club and for his distinguished service to the profession of journalism; and
Alderman Edward M. Burke Alderman, 14th Ward
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to William Recktenwald.