CHICAGO -- Hugh Hough, a Pulitzer Prize winner and veteran reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, died Wednesday after a lingering illness. He was 62.
Hough was a reporter and rewrite man for the Chicago Sun-Times for 34 years. He was remembered as 'the quintessential newspaperman' by Sun-Times publisher Robert E. Page.
Hough died after several months of treatment for cancer of the esophagus.
A native of Sandwich, Ill., Hough worked one year as a sports editor for the Dixon (Ill.) Telegraph after his graduation from the University of Illinois School of Journalism in 1951.
'He could do anything,' said Sun-Times colleague Art Petacque, with whom Hough wrote a column that appeared in the newspaper for 11 years.
'He could write about a jazz concert, a symphony and a triple murder, and do all three in 15 minutes,' Petacque said.
Hough and Petacque won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting in 1973 with a story that turned up new evidence in the 1966 slaying of Valerie Percy, daughter of former Sen. Charles Percy, R-Ill.
Both Hough and Petacque also held numerous awards and distinctions from United Press International, the Chicago News Guild and the John Howard Association.
Hough served in World War II with the Air Force as a radio operator-gunner, flying 35 missions over Europe.
Hough is survived by his wife, Ellen; four children; and his mother, Lila.
Funeral arrangments were pending.
