McCutcheon, John Tinney, Jr. 1917-2008 (John T. McCutcheon, Jr.)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born November 8, 1917, in Chicago, IL; died September 30, 2008, in Saluda, NC. Newspaper editor, columnist, and reporter. McCutcheon was a lifelong newspaper journalist. The son and namesake of a well-known newspaper editor and cartoonist, he joined the Chicago Tribune as a reporter in 1940 and retired as the editor of the editorial page in 1982. He spent an additional seven years as an archivist of the holdings of the paper and its one-time editor and publisher, Colonel Robert McCormick. During that long career McCutcheon wrote hundreds of editorials and other articles. A series that he produced in 1974 attracted particular attention. After the release of President Richard M. Nixon's notorious Watergate tapes, which revealed his complicity in the scandalous burglary of the Democratic National Committee office and subsequent cover-up attempt, McCutcheon was at the forefront of the large group of American journalists who called for Nixon's resignation or impeachment. McCutcheon's stance was important because he made his appeal from the pages of a newspaper that had, until then, been a staunch supporter of the Republican Party. McCutcheon was more widely recognized as the author of the popular column called "A Line o' Type or Two." In it, he mused on daily life in the McCutcheon family and welcomed contributions from his loyal readers. The column of whimsical anecdotes and verse fragments appeared throughout the 1950s.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, October 3, 2008, sec. 1, p. 41.