HR0802 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0802 LRB102 27132 MST 38603 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the House of Representatives wish to congratulate Pete Nenni on his retirement as deputy managing editor of The Daily Herald after more than 40 years of dedicated work in the newspaper business; and

WHEREAS, A native of Erie, Pennsylvania, Pete Nenni was raised in Mount Prospect and attended Forest View High School in Arlington Heights and Harper Community College in Palatine; he graduated from Northern Illinois University with a journalism major and a political science minor; and

WHEREAS, Pete Nenni first worked with the Barrington Press weekly newspaper group in Barrington; he joined the Daily Herald as a reporter in 1980; he was the legal affairs reporter for one year and the transportation reporter for five years; he also covered local government and business; and

WHEREAS, Pete Nenni served as the Lake County editor/manager for more than ten years and as an assistant city editor in the Cook County office for six years; and

WHEREAS, Pete Nenni was named deputy managing editor in February of 2017 to oversee local coverage in the Cook, Lake, Fox, and DuPage zones, which included organizing coverage plans for the website and print editions and overseeing the local reporting and editing staffs; he was also tasked with many organizational and efficiency-based special projects; and

WHEREAS, Pete Nenni reported on events such as the Chicago Tylenol murders, the Laurie Dann shootings, the Arlington Park Racetrack fire, the Brown's Fried Chicken massacre, and a presidential primary in New Hampshire and wrote stories that exposed government corruption, among others; he has interviewed President Gerald Ford, former Gov. James Thompson, and Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Joe Cronin; and

WHEREAS, Pete Nenni was a member of the Daily Herald Editorial Board and served on the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association Board of Directors, including a term as president in 2009; and

WHEREAS, During his reporting career at the Daily Herald, Pete Nenni won 12 state and regional writing awards, including five Peter Lisagor Awards for Public Service and other reporting; those awards stemmed from investigative projects focusing on faulty equipment and poor maintenance of a suburban bus system and mishaps and near mishaps on the runways and taxiways at O'Hare International Airport; he was named the Daily Herald's Manager of the Year in 2000; and

WHEREAS, Counting Pete Nenni's work on newspapers in junior high school, high school, college, and professionally, his journalism career has spanned 46 years in the Northwest suburbs; and

WHEREAS, Pete Nenni is respected by his peers and those who worked for him; Daily Herald editor John Lampinen called him "a devoted journalist, a caring mentor and leader, and a tremendously good person"; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we wish to congratulate Pete Nenni on his retirement as deputy managing editor of The Daily Herald; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Pete Nenni as a symbol of our esteem and respect.