Posted by chicagomedia.org on June 16, 2009 at 13:20:11:
Ron Koziol, 1934-2009: Longtime Tribune reporter fiercely worked police beat
By William Mullen | Tribune reporter
June 16, 2009
When he came to work as a young reporter at the Chicago Tribune in 1961, Ron Koziol fit in perfectly with the free-for-all atmosphere of Chicago newspapers, which still retained much of the colorful, zany energy portrayed a generation earlier in the hit Broadway comedy "The Front Page."
"Kozy was among the best of a legendary crew of wily, fierce competitors who were working the streets as police beat reporters in those days," Jim Strong, a retired Tribune labor writer and colleague, said of Mr. Koziol. "We had four daily papers pumping out four or five editions and replates every night, and editors were always looking for new leads or surprises for every new edition."
Mr. Koziol, 74, died of congestive heart failure Saturday, June 13, in his Palos Heights home.
In a 32-year career at the Tribune, he made a national name for himself, regularly beating local and national competition with stories on some of his era's most sensational stories, including the scandals in Illinois Secretary of State Paul Powell's office, the kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst and the crimes of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
In 1975 he helped found Investigative Reporters and Editors, an international organization devoted to supporting, assisting and training investigative journalists.
When another founding member, Don Bolles of the Arizona Republic, was murdered in 1976 while trying to expose fraudulent land deals in Phoenix, Mr. Koziol was a leader among 38 reporters from around the nation who voluntarily went to Phoenix to complete Mr. Bolles' work.
Mr. Koziol, who was born on Chicago's North Side, graduated from St. Mel High School. He studied radio production before taking a series of announcer jobs in small Wisconsin radio markets.
While working in Wausau in 1955, one day at the city's airport, he began flirting with a ticket agent, annoying her by asking her to call him a taxi.
"That's not my job," the agent, who later became his wife, Barbara, protested.
"He asked me if I had ever seen the inside of a radio station and invited me to see his. I never had seen one, so I went," she recalled. "We were married six months later."
By 1960, the couple, deciding that the radio business was too precarious, moved to Chicago, she said, and Mr. Koziol answered an ad from a small community newspaper looking for a reporter. He got the job. In 1961 the Tribune hired him away.
He came to newspapers when police reporters and the police worked far more cooperatively than they do in today's more prickly sensibilities. Journalism ethics now looks askance at reporters being too chummy with institutions they cover, but in the 1960s and 1970s, exclusive stories that took over front pages often were the result of a police reporter's ability to establish good police contacts.
"If you called Hollywood and asked for an actor who looked like a homicide detective, you'd hope they'd send somebody who looked like Koziol," said retired Tribune Managing Editor F. Richard Ciccone. "Ron looked, walked, talked and thought like a cop. He got the Tribune a hell of a lot of good stories."
Besides his wife, he is survived by three daughters, Karen Back, Donna Salazar and Kimberly Torri; a son, Steven; a brother, Edward; and eight grandchildren.
Visitation will be held from 2 to 9 p.m. Wednesday in Sheehy & Sons Funeral Home, 7020 W. 127th St., Palos Heights. Mass will be said at 9:30 a.m. Thursday in Incarnation Catholic Church, 5757 W. 127th St., Palos Heights.