Alex Zelchenko, 1914-2009

Lincoln Parker's diverse life included everything from scouting to reporting

01/06/2010 10:00 PM

By IAN FULLERTON
Contributing Reporter

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Alex Zelchenko, 1980



Alex Zelchenko (center) handled radio and TV on the night shift at the City News Bureau in 1959.

Alex Zelchenko, a journalist and longtime Lincoln Park resident, passed away last week at the age of 95.

A student of psychology and a World War II veteran, Zelchenko was known for his innate ability to listen, communicate and write — skills which benefited him in his many professions. He died at Saint Joseph Hospital on the morning of Dec. 24, due to complications related to lung cancer, according to his son, Peter Zelchenko.

While looking through a box of his father’s personal effects — mostly war memorabilia, academic papers and a few old newspapers — Peter Zelchenko remembered his father as a man who worked hard in many capacities.

“He always loved his job, whatever job it was,” he said.

These included careers as a reporter, 911 telephone operator, cab driver and political aide, as well as a tenure as a volunteer official with the local division of the Boy Scouts of America.

Peter noted that his father was also a hobbyist who had for years enjoyed computer sciences and ham radio.

Alex Zelchenko was born in Philadelphia in 1914, a year after his father, a Yiddish writer, moved to the city from Russia. He visited relatives in that country several times as a child, and in his early adult years lived in Moscow, where he and his family worked as translators for the Amtorg Trading Corporation, a manufacturing venture.

He returned stateside to attend Columbia University before shipping off to Austria in 1945, serving as an interrogator and an intelligence agent for the CIA for two years.

Peter Zelchenko said his father’s skills must have come in handy for that job.

“He was good at talking to people, getting them to open up and share their thoughts,” he said.

Zelchenko moved to Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood in the early 1950s, where he studied psychology and worked in the Human Development Department at the university. While there, he worked as a teaching assistant and edited the department’s periodical bulletin.

In 1957, Alex Zelchenko took his first job in journalism at the City News Bureau, a cooperative agency that served both as a source of breaking news and a training program for new reporters.

Paul Zimbrakos began working as a reporter at the bureau a year later. He said most of the city news editors “were like drill sergeants.”

“But Alex was just the opposite,” he said. “He taught the incoming kids to rewrite and report, and he did it with a stern but soft voice. All the newcomers really appreciated that.”

Zimbrakos, who later went on to manage the bureau, said that Zelchenko was also known for working fast, both in rewriting and operating the teleprinter, a communication device preceding the fax machine.

Zelchenko went on to write and edit for the Southtown Economist and the Hyde Park Herald, and also served as the night editor for WNUS Radio. After leaving the City News Bureau, he took over as managing editor for the Near North News, a neighborhood paper that covered Lincoln Park, Old Town and the Gold Coast.

Zelchenko was active in local politics in the 1970s, campaigning for candidates like the former County Board Commissioner George Dunne.

In 1969, Zelchenko began volunteering with the Boy Scout pack at Ascension Elementary School, and soon after started helping out with the Girl Scouts at the Church of the Three Crosses in Lincoln Park. He was responsible for the creation of several new chapters in the area, including Gold Coast Troop 169.

By the early 1970’s, Zelchenko had risen to become the assistant district commissioner of the Boy Scouts Lincoln Park division, one of the highest volunteer positions within the organization.

It was in this capacity that he met Jessie White, then a scoutmaster and advisor for scout groups across the city.

White, now the Illinois Secretary of State, remembered that Zelchenko always made sure that camping trips and other activities were “a truly integrated experience.”

“He was a staunch believer in kids from diverse backgrounds getting a chance to work with other kids from the Cabrini-Green area,” White recalled.

White also remembered Zelchenko as a reporter, one who he said was a “no-nonsense kind of a person.”

“He’s no longer with us, but he left the kind of mark that his family members should be proud of,” he said.

Mr. Zelchenko is survived by his wife Phyllis, with whom he recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, and his children: Gregory, Peter, Matthew, Julie and Susan. He also leaves four grandchildren.

A memorial celebration for Alex Zelchenko is planned for 2 p.m. on March 20 at Second Unitarian Church, 656 W. Barry.


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