As a top editor for the Chicago Sun-Times, Ken Towers guarded the integrity of the newspaper.
When, in 1985, one of his reporters was accused of fabricating a scene inside a rural Texas bar full of good-ol’-boy fans of the Dallas Cowboys that seemed just too perfectly scripted to be true, it fell to Mr. Towers, who was managing editor at the time, to check it out.
Mr. Towers traveled to Texas with the reporter, Wade Roberts, hoping he could retrace his steps to the roadhouse he supposedly reported from on the day of a Bears-Cowboys game. But Roberts, who denied wrongdoing, could not, and was sacked.
Two years later, in 1987, Mr. Towers was named executive editor, the paper’s top spot, a role he held for two years.
“He was a guy with integrity and you always want a guy like at the top,” said Don Hayner, who worked under Mr. Towers and later became the paper’s top editor. “I always felt backed up by him.”
Mr. Towers died Oct. 22 from natural causes. He was 90.
Mr. Towers took the reins of the paper after a period of ownership tumult that included a stint under the control of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Several out-of-towners preceded Mr. Towers in the role of executive editor.
“I recall it was reassuring to have a guy with Chicago sensibilities back in charge again,” former Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown said.
Mr. Towers also played an important role in Mary Dedinsky being named the first woman to serve as managing editor of the Sun-Times.
As head of the paper, he also championed running front page sports news, which, until then didn’t seem to merit the attention over politics and court coverage, noted former political editor Scott Fornek.
Mr. Towers was born July 4, 1935, to Albert and Irene Towers. Albert Towers was a pipefitter in a steel mill who later became a labor leader. Irene was a homemaker.
Mr. Towers attended Hirsch High School and studied philosophy and English at Northwestern University.
His education in journalism came on the job. He started as a copy clerk at the Sun-Times in 1952 at the age of 17 and worked his way to the top.
One story that Towers wrote as a reporter in 1963 as a 28-year-old Sun-Times reporter, in retrospect, foreshadowed the turbulence of the ’60s.
It was the Fourth of July, 1963, and Mayor Richard J. Daley led an NAACP “Freedom Parade” trailed by picketers. At a rally at Grant Park, he was booed by protesters.
“They’re booing the mayor!” Towers, phoned into the city desk. “NAACP HECKLERS UPSET DALEY” read the front page headline.
“That should have tipped everybody that something was going on. The Sun-Times was one of the leading papers in covering civil rights, and we took it very seriously,” Towers was quoted in a Sun-Times story years later that recounted the event.
“With his rolled-up shirt sleeves and rumpled ties, Kenny was not a flashy editor,” said Fornek.
“He started at the Sun-Times as a copy clerk and had spent his entire career at the paper, toiling away in a series of editing jobs. But he was a familiar face and someone the punch-drunk staff knew,” Fornek said.
“While not everyone always agreed with all Ken’s decisions, they knew they had his ear. He would listen to different opinions and ideas.”
Mr. Towers was influenced by his labor leader father and cared deeply about working people, Dedinsky said.
Family recalled that a portrait of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson hung next to a poster of revolutionary Che Guevara in his office and that he was a fun uncle who swam with his nieces and nephews, partook in chicken fights, and made sure they knew that self-deprecation was an art form.
Mr. Towers is survived by his wife, Roberta Stier. His first wife, Rita Kennedy Towers, died in 1993.
A visitation will be held from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 3. at Our Lady at St. Germaine, 9711 S. Kolin Ave., Oak Lawn. The visitation will be immediately followed by a funeral Mass.