John Callaway, distinguished Chicago newsman, 1936-2009

John Callaway, longtime host of WTTW/Channel 11's "Chicago Tonight," and founding director of the University of Chicago's William Benton Fellowship Program in Broadcast Journalism, died Tuesday in Racine, Wis. He was 72. Services will be 3 p.m. Sunday in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave.

Callaway, an Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist, was honored in 1997 with the University's Benton Medal for Distinguished Public Service in recognition of his contributions, including helping found the Benton Fellowship program.

The Benton Fellowship program advanced the work of midcareer radio and television professionals and enabled them to bring greater depth and understanding to their work.

From 1983 to 1994, the Benton program awarded 123 fellowships to broadcast journalists in the United States and 10 foreign countries-Australia, Ireland, Germany, China, South Korea, Russia, Canada, Britain, South Africa and Cameroon.

The program was founded to honor the late William Benton, chairman and publisher of Encyclopaedia Britannica and a U.S. senator from Connecticut. Benton served as a vice president and later a trustee of the University and was deeply committed to excellence in broadcasting.

The rich intellectual experience of the program had a lasting effect on many journalists, said Stu Chamberlain, a writer and editor at ABC News Radio who was in the first class of Benton fellows in 1983-84. Chamberlain said Callaway set a tone of curiosity and adventure.

Because of the program, "I met everyone from [former Chicago mayor] Harold Washington to [NBC News anchor] John Chancellor, strictly thanks to Callaway, who knew everybody," Chamberlain said. "Nobody else could have done what he did."

When the fellowship program ended, University President Hugo Sonnenschein praised Callaway's work, saying, "We have been very fortunate in John's leadership. He brought the Benton Fellowship program to fruition as a powerful force in American journalism. He has been the perfect bridge between the academic world and the world of broadcast journalism."

Callaway was a member of the Visiting Committee to the Harris School of Public Policy and is fondly remembered for his interest in the Oriental Institute.

A broadcast and print journalist with 40 years of experience, Callaway began his career as a police reporter at the City News Bureau in 1956 after leaving Ohio Wesleyan University and hitchhiking to Chicago. He began working for CBS, and by 1968 was news director at the CBS-owned WBBM Radio, where he successfully transformed the station into its current all-news format. He later served as vice president for CBS Radio in New York, developing the company's all-news radio stations across the country.

In 1974 he joined WTTW as news director. One year later he began hosting WTTW's first nightly news program, "The Public Newscenter," and he later was host of the station's long-running town-meeting program "Chicago Feedback." He became host of "Chicago Tonight," the station's prime-time news analysis program, in 1984. He retired in 1999 but went on to host other interview programs at the station.

Several of Callaway's specials have aired nationally on PBS, including the "John Callaway Interviews" series, which included biographical portraits of John Updike, Helen Hayes, Aaron Copeland, John Cheever, Leontyne Price, Mike Wallace, Howard Cosell, Charles Addams and Jonas Salk. Callaway's work has earned him more than 70 awards, including the Peabody award and seven Emmy awards. He is the author of the best-selling book The Thing of It Is.