In an era when newsrooms were often shadowed by sarcasm and cynicism, Robert J. Herguth was a genial gentleman. As reporter, feature writer and columnist for both the Chicago Daily News and the Sun-Times, Herguth delighted readers and colleagues for decades.
Mr. Herguth, 93, died of natural causes on May 22 in Portland, Ore., where he had been living in an assisted living facility for the past year near his daughter, visual artist Jennifer Sellers.
“My husband, kids and I were lucky to have him out here during his final year,” she said. “He was a news junkie till the end, with three newspapers delivered daily. He also kept true to his Chicago roots, watching his beloved Cubs on TV. And he would so often talk of how he loved using writing as a way to inject humor into people’s lives. He never ceased to forget how lucky he was to do something he loved so much.”
Also at his bedside when he died was daughter Amy, a real estate agent who had flown west from her home in Evanston. “My dad was funny until the very end,” she said. “He was making jokes, and finding the humor in any situation. He was a wonderful father and role model.”
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Herguth was born April 4, 1926, in Chicago, the son of Harry and Loretta Herguth. He and his sister, Joan, were raised in the city and, after the death of their father, in St. Louis. After receiving a journalism degree from the University of Missouri, Herguth worked at various newspapers around the country before and after serving in the Army during the Korean War.
By the mid-1950s he was on the staff of the Daily News. He thrived there, covering all manner of stories from crime to politics, and he proved himself a capable and hard-nosed reporter. He also fell in love, when Marge Silsbee came to work as a feature writer for the paper. They were married in 1966 and settled in Wilmette.
While she devoted most of her time to raising three children, her husband remained at the paper and soon started writing a daily column called “Herguth’s People.” For more than a decade it provided readers with a lively mix of news and gossip from the worlds of show business, politics, sports and any other realm that piqued Herguth’s interest. It contained interviews with celebrities and power brokers but was most popular for the puns with which it was sprinkled.
“Some editors didn’t like puns,” Herguth years later told a reporter. “But it was finally decided, ‘OK, you can have puns, but they have to be good puns.’”
They were good and they were endearing, created by him (the license plate of his car was PUN) and sent in by hundreds of loyal pun-loving readers. They, along with the column’s amiable tone, set Herguth apart from the work of some of his columnist colleagues.
“I think Bob knew exactly who he was writing for, the most general of readers,” said Henry Kisor, former Daily News book editor and author. “Academics say puns are the lowest form of humor, but even professorial types would stop by his column every day just to bask in his gentle wordplay. Many of us admired Mike Royko and Sydney J. Harris, but everyone loved Bob.”
Herguth had great respect for the playful literary device, writing in his foreword to Harvey C. Gordon’s 1977 book “PUNishment: The Art Of Punning Or How To Lose Friends And Agonize People” that “Puns are to words what Bach is to music, what Rembrandt is to canvas, what a French chef is to pot roast.”
After the Daily News ceased publication in 1978, Herguth joined the staff of the Sun-Times, where he created and wrote columns titled “Public Eye” and “Small Potatoes.” He also served on the paper’s editorial board and wrote obituaries and feature stories before retiring in 1999.
Among the many activities he shared with his wife was the editing of a monthly Daily News alumni newsletter after the 2002 death of its founder, Margaret Whitesides. They continued with that for more than a decade until ill health afflicted Marge Herguth. She died in April 2014.
Henry Kisor and former Daily News colleague Jack Schnedler took over the reins, and there will surely be Herguth stories aplenty in the next edition, which is now delivered electronically.
“Bob could handle breaking news with his practiced reporting and writing skills when the occasion demanded,” said Schnedler. “But he was a maestro of the pun, which he unleashed in his bright and breezy columns upon delighted if sometimes dizzied readers.”
In addition to memories, Herguth has left a living newspaper legacy. His son, Robert C. Herguth, is a journalist and was from the time he was 9 years old, when with his father he started publishing a “newspaper” for family and friends, which they sold for a nickel.
As the son entered his adult journalism career, which now has him on the Sun-Times staff as an investigative reporter, the father was always attentive but never intrusive.
“To my dad, writing wasn’t just a profession, it was who he was, and he did it as he lived his life, with kindness and humor,” said Robert C. Herguth.
At Herguth’s retirement party, one of his newspaper pals said, “Nobody has ever said a bad word about Bob Herguth.” His son was there and remembers thinking, “My God, how many people could you say that about?”
Herguth also is survived by nine grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Donnellan Family Funeral Home, 10045 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie. A funeral is set for 10 a.m. Friday at St. Francis Xavier Church, 912 Linden Avenue in Wilmette.