1940
Michael
2025
Michael J. Conlon
December 22, 1940 — July 15, 2025
Michael J. Conlon, 84, of Park Ridge, IL, passed away on July 15, 2025. The World’s Nicest Man Has Died.
Our family is sad to share that the man we consider to be the nicest man in the world has passed away. Mike Conlon - husband, Dad, and Graddy - died on Tuesday, July 15th, around 5:30 in the morning. We were there all night with him. It’s amazing that all the kids could be there, and we are hugely grateful that we could be together as we met this. Following a knee injury (Mike wanted to tell people he did it sliding into second base), he failed to spring back from a successful quadricep tendon surgery, revealing a previously undiagnosed, advanced cancer. He tolerated chemo well, but suffered a ruptured blood vessel and died on Tuesday at daybreak.
Mike loved living - the garden, his children and grandchildren, the birds, the outdoors, the music, the chaos and the peace. He delighted in it all. We are grateful that while the earth shifted fast, he felt little fear or suffering.
Mike was the oldest of three boys growing up in Peoria, Illinois. Always gifted with words, he won his high school’s coveted English medal, graduated from Bradley University, and started his award-winning journalism career with UPI in Chicago. He went on to the Detroit bureau, distinguished himself with his coverage of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, and was assigned to the Washington bureau. There he covered everything from a papal visit to new drugs and product recalls, HHS, Congress, the FTC, and lots of campaigns. He moved to Reuters in 1982 and covered general news in the Midwest United States, from the Branch Davidian stand-off to floods on the Missouri River. Many an October morning had him trying to reach Nobel Prize winners, mostly in Economics at University of Chicago . He attended every presidential nominating convention from 1968 until the year his youngest son was born, 2000. He could tell you firsthand how he covered the Watergate break-in (sent an intern), where the Queen of England kept her horse treats (her pocketbook), the truly beautiful eyes of Elizabeth Taylor (very purple), his chat with Gregory Peck (call me “Greg”), the moving campaign speeches of Jesse Jackson (the working poor catch the early bus), and what it was like to fly by helicopter over the Gulf (Persian or Arabian depending on the speaker).
He was a very witty raconteur, but a modest man whose focus was never on himself. He loved to be around people, to pour them a beverage, and to hear their stories. Add in music, all the better.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Elizabeth (nee Kennedy) and Thomas Conlon, and is survived by me his wife Jennifer, his children Michael Mary Conlon (Steven Marlin), Patrick (Hayley Baumer), John (Carli Jones), and Liam, and his grandchildren to date Everett, Michael Lorraine, and Wynne Marlin, and August, Ellis, and Cora Conlon. He is also survived by his brothers Thomas (Dorothy) and Jerome.
Cremation was private at Countryside Crematory. We will have his funeral Mass at 10:00am on Saturday, September 27, 2025 in the Holy Family Chapel at St. Paul of the Cross, 320 S. Washington, Park Ridge, IL followed by a celebration of his life back at the family home. Info (630)289-7575
Mike loved living - the garden, his children and grandchildren, the birds, the outdoors, the music, the chaos and the peace. He delighted in it all. We are grateful that while the earth shifted fast, he felt little fear or suffering.
Mike was the oldest of three boys growing up in Peoria, Illinois. Always gifted with words, he won his high school’s coveted English medal, graduated from Bradley University, and started his award-winning journalism career with UPI in Chicago. He went on to the Detroit bureau, distinguished himself with his coverage of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, and was assigned to the Washington bureau. There he covered everything from a papal visit to new drugs and product recalls, HHS, Congress, the FTC, and lots of campaigns. He moved to Reuters in 1982 and covered general news in the Midwest United States, from the Branch Davidian stand-off to floods on the Missouri River. Many an October morning had him trying to reach Nobel Prize winners, mostly in Economics at University of Chicago . He attended every presidential nominating convention from 1968 until the year his youngest son was born, 2000. He could tell you firsthand how he covered the Watergate break-in (sent an intern), where the Queen of England kept her horse treats (her pocketbook), the truly beautiful eyes of Elizabeth Taylor (very purple), his chat with Gregory Peck (call me “Greg”), the moving campaign speeches of Jesse Jackson (the working poor catch the early bus), and what it was like to fly by helicopter over the Gulf (Persian or Arabian depending on the speaker).
He was a very witty raconteur, but a modest man whose focus was never on himself. He loved to be around people, to pour them a beverage, and to hear their stories. Add in music, all the better.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Elizabeth (nee Kennedy) and Thomas Conlon, and is survived by me his wife Jennifer, his children Michael Mary Conlon (Steven Marlin), Patrick (Hayley Baumer), John (Carli Jones), and Liam, and his grandchildren to date Everett, Michael Lorraine, and Wynne Marlin, and August, Ellis, and Cora Conlon. He is also survived by his brothers Thomas (Dorothy) and Jerome.
Cremation was private at Countryside Crematory. We will have his funeral Mass at 10:00am on Saturday, September 27, 2025 in the Holy Family Chapel at St. Paul of the Cross, 320 S. Washington, Park Ridge, IL followed by a celebration of his life back at the family home. Info (630)289-7575
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Michael J. Conlon, please visit our flower store.
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