1936 - 2009
Host

John Callaway was the founding Host of the Pritzker Military Library's flagship public affairs program, Front & Center. His career of more than 53 years in broadcasting began with CBS Radio and Television in Chicago and New York. He was the founding News Director of WBBM 780 Newsradio in 1968, and the founding Director of the William Benton Fellowships program in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Chicago in 1983. He is perhaps best known as the founding Host of the nightly news analysis and interview program Chicago Tonight on WTTW, Chicago Public Television (Channel 11). Later, he was the Host of that station's Friday Night interview program, and the Host and Senior Editor of the Chicago Stories documentary program series.

His work was honored with more than one hundred awards, including seventeen Emmys - including a nomination in 2008 for his work on Front & Center - the Peabody Award, and the Founder’s Award of the Pritzker Military Library. He was the recipient of 10 honorary doctorate degrees and the William Benton Award of the University of Chicago, and is in the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame. He was also the author of a best-selling book of essays, The Thing of It Is, and wrote and performed in two acclaimed one-man autobiographical shows for Chicago’s Pegasus Players Theatre.