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92_HR0834
LRB9216653BHbh
1 HOUSE RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3 Representatives are saddened to learn of the death Stuart R.
4 Paddock Jr. of Rolling Meadows, who passed away April 15,
5 2002; and
6 WHEREAS, Mr. Paddock was the president and publisher of
7 the Daily Herald Newspaper since 1968, and publisher emeritus
8 since 1998; he transformed the Daily Herald from a group of
9 small-town weeklies into one of the largest and most
10 successful suburban newspapers in America, with a daily
11 circulation of 148,856 papers, 77th largest in the country
12 and third-largest in Illinois; and
13 WHEREAS, Stuart Paddock Jr. was born September 19, 1915,
14 in Palatine; he began working for the family paper, then run
15 by his grandfather, Hosea C. Paddock, as a "printer's devil,"
16 working in the re-melt room; his job was to pour molten metal
17 into molds, which were used in the linotype machines; and
18 WHEREAS, Mr. Paddock graduated from Knox College in
19 Galesburg in 1937 with a liberal arts degree and a major in
20 economics; after hitchhiking toward California, he returned
21 to Illinois and worked as assistant editor at the newspaper;
22 and
23 WHEREAS, Mr. Paddock was called into service shortly
24 after Pearl Harbor and entered as a second lieutenant,
25 serving as a company commander in a tank destroyer battalion
26 with General Patton's Third Army in Europe; he was discharged
27 as a captain in 1946 and is remembered as being a fine
28 officer and a real gentleman; and
29 WHEREAS, Mr. Paddock returned to the paper after his tour
30 of duty and concentrated his efforts in production and the
31 company's commercial printing business; and
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1 WHEREAS, Mr. Paddock became a vice president and director
2 of Paddock Publications in 1948; in 1968, after the death of
3 his father, Stuart R. Paddock Sr., Mr. Paddock became
4 president and publisher; he worked closely with his brother,
5 the late Robert Y. Paddock, and sister, the late Margie
6 Flanders, to build the paper up to its current status; Mr.
7 Paddock was named chairman of Paddock Publications in 1986
8 and became publisher emeritus in 1998; he would have
9 celebrated his 65th anniversary working for the paper in
10 June; and
11 WHEREAS, Mr. Paddock cared deeply for his employees and
12 constantly kept in good rapport with them, all of whom knew
13 him affectionately as "Stu"; and
14 WHEREAS, Stuart Paddock Jr. was a member of many
15 organizations, such as the Pulitzer Prize Jury in 1970 and
16 1971, and the Headline Club of Chicago; he was Past president
17 (1960-1961) and director of the Illinois Press Association,
18 past Illinois State chairman of the National Newspaper
19 Association, past director, vice president, and treasurer of
20 the Suburban Newspaper Section of the National Newspaper
21 Association; Mr. Paddock was a member of the Business
22 Advisory Council of the University of Illinois at Circle
23 Campus, past president and current director of the Cook
24 County Suburban Publishers Association, past director of the
25 Printing Industry of Illinois, and national chairman of the
26 Newspaper Committee for a Free and Competitive Press; and
27 WHEREAS, Mr. Paddock was named to the Chicago Area
28 Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame in February, 2001; he was the
29 recipient of "Good Scout Award" from Northwest Suburban
30 Council, Boy Scouts of America in 1995; Mr. Paddock was
31 honored by Rotary International for his philanthropic work,
32 as a Paul Harris Fellow in 1989, and he was recognized as one
33 of the 10 most influential Northwest suburbanites in a survey
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1 conducted by the Daily Herald in 1981; and
2 WHEREAS, Mr. Paddock's interests were numerous, including
3 classical music, horse racing, the Bears, and opera; he
4 supported the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera,
5 Ravinia, the Goodman Theatre, and the Elgin Symphony
6 Orchestra; and
7 WHEREAS, The passing of Stuart R. Paddock Jr. will be
8 deeply felt by all those who knew him and loved him,
9 especially by his wife, Anne; his five daughters and son;
10 Anne's four children; and their combined 23 grandchildren and
11 four great-grandchildren, and all of the 880 employees of the
12 Daily Herald; therefore, be it
13 RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
14 NINETY-SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
15 we mourn, along with his family and friends, the death of
16 Stuart R. Paddock Jr.; and be it further
17 RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
18 presented to the family of Stuart R. Paddock Jr. with our
19 sincere condolences.