Former Tribune Chronicle Executive Editor Susan Svihlik died Sunday in Chicago after a five-year battle with cancer. She was 71.
“When they told her, they said she only had two years, but mom being mom, she made it to five,” her daughter, Sarah Svihlik, said.
Svihlik was hired as managing editor of the Tribune Chronicle in 1991 and named executive editor the following year. With Svihlik as editor, the newspaper won numerous Ohio Associated Press Awards and other honors, including the 1993 E.W. Scripps Award for Service to the First Amendment and the 1997 Associated Press Society of Ohio’s First Amendment Award for outstanding accomplishment in pursuing freedom of information on behalf of the public.
“Susan was a strong leader of the Tribune Chronicle’s newsroom for many years,” said Tribune Chronicle Publisher Charles Jarvis. “We owe her a debt of gratitude for hiring and nurturing several of our current newsroom staff, including our Editor Brenda Linert. She also made many friends in the community during her stay here. Her family should be very proud of her journalistic career.”
Linert recalled Svihlik as a mentor when she was hired as an entry-level reporter.