Clarence Petersen, a gentle man whose wit and whimsy graced the pages of the Chicago Tribune during his 38-years with the newspaper, died Tuesday, Feb. 15, in the Church Creek assisted living facility in Arlington Heights.
He had turned 78 a day earlier. About five years ago Mr. Petersen suffered a heart attack and a series of strokes, developing a form of dementia and other complications that resulted in his death.
A reporter, columnist and editor, Mr. Petersen’s column on paperback books ran for decades in the Sunday book section.
His most visible stint, ironically for such a well-read man, was as the paper’s television critic. His column photograph was frequently plastered on the side of CTA buses.
“To tell you the truth, I had hardly even thought much about TV until a month ago,” Mr. Petersen confessed in his first TV column on Sept. 3, 1969. He promised readers he would quit “the minute this column isn’t fun.”
He quit the column almost exactly four years later.
He found little he liked on television, but he enjoyed poking good-natured fun at the industry as well as himself. He based a hilarious 1971 column on an interview with Monday Night Football’s outspoken commentator, Howard Cosell, who excoriated Mr. Petersen with withering contempt when he discovered the critic knew nothing about football.
When he did find something he liked, Mr. Petersen could be prophetic, as he was in a story about a new show in January, 1971: “It’s the boldest, brashest new series … in the case of ‘All in the Family,’ it is the substance, not the form, that will guarantee the show a place in television history.”
Mr. Petersen often talked about his sense of relief when he put television reporting behind him.
A man of many parts, he grew up in west suburban Westchester, the son of Danish immigrants. As a schoolboy, Mr. Petersen showed an outsize talent as a clarinetist and a love for jazz.
He graduated from Proviso (now Proviso East) High School in 1951 and was majoring in political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign when he began working on the Daily Illini student newspaper.
He wrote home that he had discovered a love for writing and “it looks like this is what I should be doing.” He left Illinois to follow a girlfriend to Michigan. The romance didn’t last, but he graduated from Michigan State University in 1955.
Mr. Petersen was drafted into the Army, and his talent in music landed him in two year’s service playing for the Army Band, including a 1956 appearance with the group on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” according to his brother, Norman.
He married while in the Army, and after his discharge, he and his wife returned to Chicago, where Mr. Petersen joined City News Bureau, a training ground for journalists. By 1958, he was at the Tribune and he and his wife started a family, raising two daughters, Karen and Judy. The couple later divorced.
“He was a fun dad,” said his daughter Karen Petersen. “He was very playful, witty and goofy, but very stubborn and determined when he wanted to accomplish something. One Thanksgiving he roasted a turkey on the grill, but it was so slow to cook that we didn’t eat until midnight.”
Mr. Petersen’s wry sense of humor often was present in the thousands of stories and book and television columns he wrote through the years. It was also a quality that endeared him to the many co-workers and friends he made during his career. He was also generous with his talents, particularly with younger, inexperienced colleagues.
“He was really enthusiastic about everybody’s work, encouraging people to do their best,” said Robert Cross, a retired Tribune feature writer. “I was especially aware of that when I was new there, when he taught me a lot about writing and about the business. He did that for a lot of people.”
After he retired in 1997, Mr. Petersen volunteered as a writer and copy editor for the Shedd Aquarium’s newsletter.
“When it was proposed to me that a retired Tribune editor who had edited Pulitzer Prize winners would edit my copy, I was terrified,” said Karen Furnweger, Shedd editorial director.
“He turned out to be a wonderful mentor and friend,” she said. “If I wrote something that he didn’t think was very good, he let me know about it, but in doing so, he would get me to focus on what I was doing, and make it into something good. He was here for 10 years, and I learned so much from him.”
He is also survived by his daughter Judy Cheesman and two grandchildren.
A memorial service is being planned.
