City Room™ - News In Brief - Leon Despres Dies at 101

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Leon Despres Dies at 101
Produced by Justin Kaufmann on Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Northwestern University Press/Marianne Jankowski

Former Chicago Alderman and longtime activist Leon Despres has died at the age of 101. Despres was an alderman from Hyde Park, representing the 5th ward from 1955-1975. He became well-known for standing up to former Mayor Richard J. Daley in Chicago's city council over open housing issues, among others. Despres wrote his memoir in 2005, entitled Challenging the Daley Machine: A Chicago Alderman’s Memoir. Despres died this morning.

Blog: Friends and colleagues react
Related: 2003 Interview with Despres (Real Audio)
Related: Despres 100th birthday celebration

Ted Regencia, Skokie, IL // Wednesday, May 06, 2009 @ 8:00 PM

I had the honor of spending a few hours with Mr. Depres last January, in his Hyde Park apartment. I am very much impressed with his wealth of knowledge, his wit and humor. Chicago lost another honorable man. May he rest in peace. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbycjXEUK3c&feature=channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTzcRCMVc4Q&feature=channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBIM70VkzPw&feature=channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O-5z-w7Pp4&feature=channel

bart schultz, hyde park // Thursday, May 07, 2009 @ 9:54 AM

We at the University of Chicago's Civic Knowledge Project are profoundly saddened by the passing of Leon M. Despres, who as President Obama has remarked, was indeed a true giant. He was the grand old man of the South Side, and we were honored to do an extensive interview with him during the summer of 2008. A rough cut of this is available at: http://mindonline.uchicago.edu/media/humanities/ckp/despres_041409_512K.mov Mr. Despres still has much to teach us.