Samuel A. Guzzardo, 85, a former Depression-era newsboy who for decades ran his own Chicago Tribune distributorship, died Sunday, March 10, in Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach, Fla., after a heart attack. Born and raised in Rockford, Mr. Guzzardo ran a corner newsstand with two of his brothers from the time he was 7 until 1935, when he left home for college. Revenue from the stand, where the boys worked from early in the morning until it was time for school and then again after school, helped support his large family, led by Mr. Guzzardo’s Sicilian immigrant parents, said his son George. The only one of the family’s 12 children to go to college, Mr. Guzzardo received a bachelor’s degree in education from Northern Illinois State Teachers College in DeKalb and earned his master’s degree at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. In 1959, after working as a union organizer, Mr. Guzzardo bought the Macomb News Agency, a wholesale distributorship in west-central Illinois. Mr. Guzzardo ran the business until about 1980, when his son took it over full-time with plenty of part-time help from his dad. “He and I spent a lot of years stuffing millions of Tribunes,” his son said. “And he worked until almost the very end. He was the fastest newspaper stuffer known to man.” Mr. Guzzardo, who also taught high school social studies in Macomb until the early 1970s, gravitated toward the newspaper business because it allowed him to work with his family, his son said. Mr. Guzzardo believed the tough work, seven days a week, would teach his children a good work ethic. He also was proud of his efforts to improve working conditions and wages for union members, his son said. During World War II, he served with the Army infantry in Europe and earned the Bronze Star, his son said. Mr. Guzzardo was active in Winnebago County Democratic politics until 1958 and served as an alderman on the Rockford City Council. He also worked for the CIO , which later merged with the AFL-CIO , and on the staff of the United Auto Workers, helping union workers throughout Illinois and organizing tool-and-die workers in Winnebago County, his son said. “His political activism was based on the idea that this great American experience could work for everyone,” his son said. Additional survivors include his wife; two other sons, Paul and David; a daughter, Mary Teresa Kessler; and three grandchildren. Visitation will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday in St. Paul Catholic Church, 309 W. Jackson St., Macomb. Mass will be said at 11 a.m. Friday in the church.
