Jack Conaty, a longtime Chicago television political news reporter, liked to drink a Diet Coke before going on air to boost his energy.
He understood the importance of professional passion.
He was a high school English teacher before switching careers to journalism. Colleagues say his educational background allowed him to present complex news stories in a concise, easy-to-understand manner.
In 1987 he landed a job with Fox Chicago WFLD-Channel 32 after starting his career in Florida, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
Mr. Conaty has covered everything from local and state politics to political conventions and the impeachment of Bill Clinton.
“Konaté wouldn’t have had a better table at La Scarola. He was a traditional reporter who was keen to uncover the truth,” said his former Fox colleague Lilia Chacón, who noted Konaté’s biting sense of humor.
Mr. Konaté died on August 28 in an Arizona hospital from complications from cancer. He was 77.
“He was so funny, smart and quick that even if you were the target of his mockery, you would have to laugh,” Chacon said.
In addition to covering daily news, Mr. Conaty, who retired in 2009, hosted “Fox Chicago Perspectives,” a Sunday morning political talk show on Fox.
“His guests on the show were afraid to come back because he didn’t ask them easy questions,” said Chacon, who described a noisy newsroom in the 1980s filled with back-and-forth discussions. “He would ask public officials, ‘What have you done for me lately?’”
“It was just chaos, and you really had to prove yourself,” she said, imagining Mr. Conaté drinking coffee and rocking back and forth on chairs that weren’t designed to rock back and forth, constantly breaking them. “We kept each other on our toes. You couldn’t make a statement with Jack without his support. It was so vital, and honestly, I loved the man. Behind all the cynicism, he was so kind and so in love with his daughters and so proud of them.”
While covering the 1996 Iowa caucuses, Mr. Conaty walked into a steakhouse in Des Moines after a late broadcast and watched all the major network news anchors from around the country eating dinner.
“Jack looked at me and said, ‘Son, if a bomb hits this restaurant, all the major jobs in the industry will be open,’” Jason Erkes, his former producer, recalls with a laugh.
“He called me 'the kid' and everyone called him 'the old man' in the newsroom, not because of his age, but because of his wisdom and his gray hair, and because he was friendly and angry at the same time,” Erks said.
Mr. Conaty's work has won numerous awards, including three Chicago Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award.
“Jack was a television whiz. He had great focus and a great voice, and he could say things very succinctly, but you could also give him a microphone and ask him to fill four or five minutes of his time talking about something like Dan Rostenkowski’s past, and he could do that easily,” said his former colleague Larry Yellen.
Mr. Conaty, who lived in Wilmette and River North while working at Fox, loved to take his daughters to the newsroom on Take Your Kids to Work Day.
“I remember being in a cute little dress when I was six or seven, and being allowed to sit in the control room at the station, and seeing how fast everything moved, and seeing how it worked and how different this kind of job was from a traditional 9-to-5 office job,” said his daughter, Catherine Conaty.
“He was really serious about the importance of journalism in our society,” she said.
Catherine added that going to the movies and driving Mr. Conaty's golf cart when he took his daughters golfing are also fond memories.
Mr. Conaty was born on September 26, 1946, in Connecticut and raised in suburban New Haven. He attended Notre Dame High School in West Haven and attended college at Providence College in Rhode Island.
After six years of teaching high school English, he enrolled at the University of Missouri to study journalism but left early to take a job at a television station in Tampa, Florida.
In addition to his daughter, Catherine, Mr. Conaty is survived by his wife, Tinsley DeBell, another daughter, Eliza, and two siblings, Helen Conaty and Gene Conaty.
A special service is planned.
