Beryl Zitch, 73, a speaker’s agent for nationally renowned poets, novelists and journalists, including Illinois Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks, died of cancer Thursday at the Hospice of the North Shore in Evanston. Mrs. Zitch started arranging speaking engagements for authors and artists through her company, the Contemporary Forum, in 1972. She was particular about the speakers she chose to represent, and she and her husband, Eugene, developed close friendships with many of them. “Agents in this business look at their clientele as a piece of meat. She didn’t,” Eugene Zitch said. “She was very sensitive to their needs and went out of her way to make sure their travel arrangements were just so.” Some of the more than 70 people she represented included Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Clarence Page; Lerone Bennett, senior editor of Ebony Magazine; and a Chicago short story writer and novelist, Harry Mark Petrakis. An avid theatergoer, Mrs. Zitch was active in community theater during the 1960s and enjoyed attending the Stratford, Ontario, Shakespeare Festival. A Chicago native, Mrs. Zitch loved big cities and sought out theater and museums during her travels. Mrs. Zitch is also survived by a son, David Sacks; a daughter, Susan Termini; three stepchildren, Paula Zupnik, Adrienne Weidenhagen and Roberta Levine; 10 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. Services will be at 5:30 p.m. Sunday in Congregation B’nai Emunah, 9131 Niles Center Rd., Skokie.
