Thomas Deutschle, 84, of Wheaton, formerly of Elmhurst, a decorated war veteran and former police reporter for the City News Bureau and Chicago Sun, who assisted author John Steinbeck during his coverage of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in 1956, died of cancer Tuesday, Nov. 19, in Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove.
Mr. Deutschle, an Oak Park native, spent his childhood in Lombard, where he graduated from Glenbard High School. Soon after, he was hired as a cub reporter for the City News Bureau in Chicago, where his father, the late George Deutschle, worked as a political editor. During the 1930s, he covered beats that included the police, courts, City Hall and federal buildings.
“He said he learned a lot working at the Bureau, especially when it came to getting the facts and getting them straight,” said his son Tim. “He said the editors there were tough, making him verify everything and never letting anything slip by. They’d tell him, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”
After that, Mr. Deutschle was hired as a police reporter at the Chicago Sun before the paper merged with the Chicago Times. He worked there for a few years before joining the Army in 1944, where he was assigned to the 328th Infantry Regiment, 26th Division. He served in active combat in the European theater in World War II. and was awarded the combat Infantryman’s Badge, Purple Heart and the Silver Star.
Mr. Deutschle earned the Silver Star for his bravery in defending his company while it was under German attack. Family members said he moved to an exposed position to replace a gunner already killed by enemy fire. He then released a series of counter bursts so powerful that two enemy machine guns were silenced long enough to permit flanking American riflemen to destroy them. He was honorably discharged in 1945.
In 1956, Mr. Deutschle was selected by “Grapes of Wrath” author John Steinbeck to assist him in covering the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the Republican National Convention in San Francisco. Steinbeck had been hired by a syndicate of some 30 newspapers to report on the “overtones and folklore” of the conventions.
Family members said Mr. Deutschle beat out about 50 other Chicago area journalists vying for the job, mostly because of his experience as a police reporter, but also because he was also an acquaintance of one of Steinbeck’s friends.
According to his son, Steinbeck would later quip, “He’s a friend of a friend, How else do you get a job?” That quote later surfaced in a biography on Steinbeck, published in 1984 and written by Jackson J. Benson.
“From all accounts, the two had a wonderful rapport, with my dad doing all the leg work,” his son said. “Steinbeck would write up all his stories in long hand and my dad would type them up and make carbon copies.”
Mr. Deutschle also held several administrative and publicist positions throughout his career, including the American Bakers Association and the Biscuit and Crackers Manufacturers Association, both in Chicago. He also was the owner/operator of a packaged liquor store in Elmhurst for several years. He retired from an outside sales position with Sears in Oak Brook in 1983.
“My dad was a real humble kind of man, not one to brag about the things he’d done in life,” his son said. “His real pride came from what he accomplished through raising a family. Still the time spent as a journalist was important to him and something he said he wouldn’t have traded for anything.”
Other survivors include his wife, Eleanor; another son, Thomas E.; a daughter, Barbara Rainier; two stepsons, Richard and Keith Groenwald; a stepdaughter, Laurel Rabjohns; a brother, Paul; two sisters, Caroline Wilson and Patricia Giovannini; 16 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 3 to 8 p.m. Friday in Hultgren Funeral Home, 304 N. Main St., Wheaton. Services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday in St. Paul Lutheran Church, 515 S. Wheaton Ave., Wheaton.
