Джим Раддл, легендарный журналист из Чикаго, завершил карьеру и отправился в кругосветное путешествие на яхте

Jim Ruddle made his mark on Chicago as a respected broadcast newsman who, quite literally, sailed into the sunset after his last broadcast. He had a reputation as an old-school professional who could skillfully craft a news script in minutes, and utilizing a photographic memory, recite it by heart on air. He arrived in Chicago in 1965 and worked at WGN-Channel 9 before taking a position at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5. He later worked at WTTW-Channel 11 alongside the late John Callaway and served as a network correspondent for NBC News before returning to NBC5 as a news anchor and nightly commentator. “There’s an art form to great reporting and writing, and Ruddle was a master of both,” said his former NBC5 colleague Carol Marin. “He knew how to ask really hard but fair questions, and he respected the people he interviewed, but he didn’t pander to them, and he wasn’t coy.” “He liked smart, no-bull---- people because that’s who he was and what he was,” Marin said. “He also had strong opinions and could offer eviscerating commentaries, but he knew what he was talking about.” Mr. Ruddle retired in 1986, boarded his sailboat, named Zarzuela, and sailed to the Bahamas. He lived on his boat and sailed the islands for several months. He later sailed around the United States. “He said ‘I’m not working holidays, or any other days!’ and he decided to go follow his dream,” said his son, Blake Ruddle. Mr. Ruddle died Aug. 27 in Rye, New York, from natural causes. He was 94. “He retired on his own terms. He was coming up for contract, and he’d won Chicago Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award, and he was just fed up with the economics and politics that became more and more a part of the news, which he felt had essentially turned from journalism into show business,” said his son. In 1988, during his post-retirement sailing adventure, he told the Chicago Tribune, “I’ve nothing to go back to. I sit in that cockpit and talk to myself and give my views and opinions and thoughts on very serious subjects. And, of course, no one is listening. It’s just like talking to a news director.” Mr. Ruddle began his career in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in an era when the news he read went on radio and television broadcasts simultaneously. When he was a network correspondent for NBC News, his job took him many places. In 1978 he went to Rome to cover the papal conclave that resulted in the election of Pope John Paul II. Weeks later he found himself in freezing Northwest Canada after a Soviet spy satellite with a nuclear reactor malfunctioned and crashed back to Earth. For many years, Mr. Ruddle, who lived in Hyde Park and later Glenview, enjoyed a drink and a song. “He and I liked to go into taverns once in a while, and we both liked to sing old songs, like songs from Johnny Mercer and Cole Porter,” recalled his former NBC5 colleague Peter Nolan. “And sometimes a barkeep would come up and say ‘Pete, I’ll give you 10 bucks if you and Ruddle won’t sing tonight,’ but most of the time they liked it.” In his retirement, he wrote a children’s adventure novel titled “My Name is Luke” about a boy in 1858 New England who falls asleep on his grandfather’s schooner and is kidnapped by two seafaring villains. Mr. Ruddle was born during the Great Depression on May 20, 1932, in Tulsa to George and Lucille Ruddle. He was a lawyer. She was a homemaker. Mr. Ruddle served in U.S. Coast Guard and attended the University of Tulsa. “He was not a conspicuous guy. He wore a pair of blue jeans, and wore them until he wore them out, and then got another pair of blue jeans,” his son said. In recent years, as the necessary maneuvering on the deck of a sailboat became difficult, he maintained his love for the sea by purchasing an old fishing boat that he used to cruise the Long Island Sound. Mr. Ruddle was preceded in death by his wife, Anne. He’s survived by daughters Emily Cole, Brey Sloan, Kristen Ruddle and son Blake Ruddle, along with six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. “He loved the news. Whatever came in that day, he always wanted to be a part of it,” said his longtime companion Marilyn Balamaci, a magazine reporter and editor. “Fundamentally, being a journalist was in his blood.” A celebration of his life that will take place in Chicago is being planned. Mitch Dudek Chicago Sun-TimesFeatures reporter