John Lucadamo was a reporter and editor in Chicago for almost 20 years before changing course and becoming an English and journalism teacher at New Trier High School in Winnetka.
“He fully believed in community journalism and in covering the towns and especially the schools, and it was little surprise that he would go on to have this extraordinary second career as an English teacher at New Trier, because he was, I think, a lifelong academic himself,” said retired Tribune transportation reporter Jon Hilkevitch, who worked with Lucadamo in the Tribune’s Rosemont bureau in the early 1990s.
Lucadamo, 73, died of complications from prostate cancer April 14 at Evanston Hospital, said his wife, Nancye Kirk. He had lived in Evanston since 1976.
Born in Rahway, N.J., Lucadamo earned a bachelor’s degree from Alfred University in western New York in 1968 and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 1970.
Lucadamo worked as a reporter and as a copy editor at the Louisville Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., from 1970 until 1976, his wife said. Lucadamo joined the Chicago Sun-Times in 1976 as a copy editor.
After nine years at the Sun-Times, Lucadamo took a job at the Tribune in 1985 as a copy editor. Starting in 1987, Lucadamo shifted to working as a metro reporter for the Tribune, covering suburban news. One major story Lucadamo covered early on was the discovery of a Chicago Outfit burial ground in southeastern DuPage County in 1988.
In 1991, Lucadamo began focusing solely on the northern suburbs, particularly the North Shore. In time, Lucadamo narrowed his focus to covering public schools in the northern suburbs.
“Whatever distractions and issues were going on at the Tribune in terms of beats and things, John just really gave his all into every job he did,” Hilkevitch said. “Like most good reporters would do, he was always learning and always trying to improve himself. And his ethics were just top-notch.”
The exposure to education spurred Lucadamo to explore a career as a schoolteacher, his wife said.
“He always said if he hadn’t gone into journalism, he would have liked to have been a teacher,” she said.
Lucadamo left the Tribune in 1995. He took classes at Loyola University to earn a state teaching certificate and in 1996 took a job as an English and journalism teacher at New Trier. He also was the head sponsor for the New Trier News student newspaper.
“John was a splendid addition to the New Trier English department — an astonishing blend of tough-minded and tenderhearted. One moment he was a hard-bitten newsroom pro, yelling at a recalcitrant student journalist, and the next he was tearing up over someone in need of help and sympathy,” recalled Julie Johnson, a former colleague at New Trier.
New Trier English teacher Rachel Hess recalled that students from across the school “frequently flocked to Mr. Lucadamo’s desk for help not only with writing assignments but to chat about anything and everything, from college plans to politics to just how their day was going.”
“John was quick to offer advice as to how to more powerfully craft a sentence or how to create an image that would move a student’s readers,” Hess said. “The fatherly advice that he offered students when a problem seemed insurmountable always calmed and reassured them and, most important, let them know that an adult cared deeply about them.”
As the faculty sponsor for the student newspaper, Hess said, Lucadamo often worked late into the night with students to ensure that they met their deadlines and produced stories that would pique the interest of the student body.
“It was with great pride that John led his students to take first place in the statewide journalism competition in 2006,” Hess said.
After retiring from New Trier in 2011, Lucadamo was active in Northwestern University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, where he organized classes about authors like William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. Lucadamo also organized volunteers at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Evanston who serve lunch to 40 to 60 people every Wednesday.
“It was something John just wanted to do, and he made it work,” his wife said. “As he insisted, the people who showed up, as he said, we call them our guests and we treat them as our guests. That lunch program was one of the loves of his life.”
In addition to his wife, Lucadamo is survived by a son, Kirk; and a daughter, Eleanor.
Services were held.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.