Grant Daniel Pick was a reporter who could find a story in a drifter with a massive key collection who stopped to straighten the journalist’s collar. He managed to scare up and profile a Chicago hypnotist who had flown to Iraq to treat Uday Hussein.
Mr. Pick, 57, a Chicago Reader staff writer who produced stories on topics ranging from religion to transgender individuals, died Tuesday, Feb. 1, after collapsing outside his Lincoln Park home, apparently of a heart attack, family members said.
His interests were broad and eclectic, and yet he handled even the most offbeat topics with empathy, said Reader editor Alison True.
“There was a generosity of spirit that was typical of him no matter what he was writing about, because he would write a story of a wacky person, but it didn’t come across as `Hey, get a load of this wacko,'” True said.
Mr. Pick received his bachelor’s degree in history at Roosevelt University and master’s at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Mr. Pick met his wife, Kathy Richland Pick, a photographer, in 1971 when a mutual friend set them up, she said. It was not an auspicious beginning, she recalled. He tended to wear things that “were maybe in style but always wrong,” she said, and their first outings were to a bad movie, a music festival where they had to help usher and a high school theatrical production that he was reviewing.
“My first three dates with him were just horrific,” she said, laughing.
But she ended up charmed by him, and they married in 1974.
Mr. Pick’s death was all the more shocking for those who knew him because he bicycled, hiked and worked to stay in shape. He once took part in a Minneapolis to Chicago bike ride to raise money for AIDS treatment.
After writing a story for the Tribune Magazine about obesity last year, he started to wear a pedometer to measure his steps, as did some of those he wrote about, his wife said. Soon he was buying pedometers and sending them to people he knew to help them stay in shape.
He was active in school reform, tutoring children, charitable contributions and in Temple Sholom on North Lake Shore Drive, where he helped establish a soup kitchen.
“He embodied the teachings of Judaism that compel us to look beyond the boundaries of our own community,” Senior Rabbi Aaron Petuchowski said.
It was through journalism, though, that readers encountered his sympathy for people. When he met the man with the keys, Mr. Pick asked why he would carry so many. The man replied, “They’re the keys to my broken heart.” Mr. Pick profiled the man for the Reader.
Some of his ideas–including the story on Uday Hussein’s hypnotist, set to run in Friday’s Reader–came from an exterminator he happened to meet, his wife said.
“Grant is the most democratic person, accepts all kind of people, and he felt very strongly that his demeanor and appearance should be very plain,” she said. “And, therefore, he’s able to get trust from all his subjects.”
Mr. Pick, who also freelanced for the Tribune, People magazine and other publications, was a winner of the Chicago Headline Club chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Peter Lisagor Awards for exemplary journalism for a story titled “Still Doing Time,” about a paroled sex offender.
Patrick Reardon, a Tribune reporter who was a friend, appreciated Mr. Pick’s contributions to a history book club.
“Grant was always a gentle soul, soft-spoken but very clear in his insights,” Reardon said. “When he disagreed with you, he’d make it clear, but he’d make it clear in a respectful way.”
Survivors also include a daughter, Emily; a son, John; a sister, Judy Pick Eissner; and a brother, James Block Pick.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday in Temple Sholom, 3480 N. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago.
