Long-time Chicago broadcast journalist, newsman and author James F. Ruddle died August 27, 2026 of natural causes at the age of 94 in Rye, NY.
Jim Ruddle was born in Tulsa, OK, the youngest of three to parents George and Lucille [Baxter] Ruddle. He graduated from Tulsa Central High School and the University of Tulsa, then received a Master’s degree from the University of New Mexico. He enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1951 for a three-year term, where he served as a radio operator in both the North Atlantic and the Pacific.
He began his broadcasting career in high school, then as a baseball announcer for a Kansas radio station. On leaving the Coast Guard, he returned to Tulsa and began working in television news at KOTV-TV. He later worked for a Mexican radio station and for radio & television in Albuquerque, New Mexico, while attending grad school.
He was co-anchor of the early evening news at WTVT-TV in Tampa, Florida from 1963-1965, while also teaching American Studies at the University of South Florida.
Jim Ruddle came to Chicago in 1965, as co-anchor of the early and late evening newscasts at WGN-Channel 9. From there he moved to NBC-affiliate WMAQ-Channel 5 as a reporter and anchor of the Midnight Report and the 5 o’clock news. He launched the Public News Center with John Callaway at public television WTTW-Channel 11, then moved to be an NBC national correspondent, covering stories like the “Year of Three Popes” and the release of the US hostages from Iran. He returned to WMAQ as a news anchor and nightly commentator. During his broadcasting career, he received six Emmy Awards, for both general news and investigative. “Strip and Search,” which he reported with WMAQ-TV’s UNIT5, won a Peabody Award for investigative journalism. He was selected to the Silver Circle, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Chicago/Midwest) Honor Society, in 2003.
President of the Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences from 1974-1981, he was a member of several professional journalistic and academic organizations.
Increasingly frustrated with the shift in broadcast news from journalist-led to financially-centered, he retired in 1986 and returned to his nautical roots, sailing around the Great Lakes, the Inland Waterway and the Caribbean for a number of years. Between sailing journeys, he was focused on enjoying relationships with his grandchildren. In 2014 his book My Name is Luke was published, a coming-of-age story that takes place aboard a working fishing vessel in 19th-century New England.
He is survived by his children: Emily (Ira), Blake, Brey, and Kristen (Kylie), grandchildren: Jenny, Brian, Bobby, Anne, James, and Hamish, five great-grandchildren, and his long-term partner, Marilyn Balamaci. He was preceded in death by his wife Anne, his brothers George Jr. (Jack) and Douglas (Jerry) his daughter-in-law Cindy and his son-in-law Rick.
A memorial service will be held in Chicago, date and location TBD. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Coast Guard Mutual Assistance or independent journalists.
