Burt Constable

Columnist
  • Phone(847) 427-4562
  • Emailbconstable@dailyherald.com

Burt Constable grew up on a farm in Goodland, Ind., where he learned how to plant, cultivate, rotary hoe and be fearful of cows. He is a 1976 graduate of South Newton High School, and graduated from Northwestern University in 1980 with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

Burt worked for the Lafayette (Ind.) Journal & Courier and the Washington (Iowa) Evening Journal before becoming police reporter with the Daily Herald in 1981. He worked as a copy editor and later covered courts, crime and some sports and general assignment stories before becoming a full-time columnist in 1988 alongside legendary Chicago columnist Jack Mabley.

He has won several awards, generally for covering tragedies. Burt and his wife have three sons and live in the suburbs.

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God and natural disaster: Whatever the spin, we come together

May 22 2013 | 8:25 pm - When it comes to natural phenomena, society seems to have this rule: Thank God for beautiful sunsets; blame Mother Nature for deadly tornadoes. Some of my Facebook friends routinely post photographs of stunningly awesome cloud formations with...

Prospect Heights man reinvents play while living out of his van

May 21 2013 | 5:08 am - Perhaps Prospect Heights native Hans Fleischmann pours so much of himself into a daring production of Tennesee Williams' classic "The Glass Menagerie" because he developed the production's vision while living in a van on the street. “It's 2 in...

Cary businessman turned war's terrors into art

May 19 2013 | 8:56 am - Cary businessman Mike Duffy studied art after he came home from the war in Vietnam. Duffy's paintings will be part of a new exhibit at the National Veterans Art Museum on Chicago's Northwest Side. "I figured I'd be dead by morning," he says of the...

Little stinkers usher in suburban skunk season

May 16 2013 | 5:16 am - A glimpse of a possible mountain lion in the suburbs merits headlines. Coyotes grab plenty of attention. But the animal causing a stink in the suburbs these days is the skunk. A decade ago, a rabies epidemic knocked down the skunk population, but...

With these temperature swings, only strong flowers survive

May 14 2013 | 12:09 pm - Shutting off the heat and switching on the air-conditioning? Plants at Morton Arboretum in Lisle tried to fight off a freeze early Monday morning but will bask in 80-degree temperatures today. "All those hanging baskets people get for Mother's Day,...

It took a team to save this baby and his mom

May 12 2013 | 6:17 am - As a pregnant teenager, Sofia Espinoza lugged her backpack and extra weight up and down the stairs at Addison Trail High School. She took advantage of pregnancy advice from school counselors, graduated early and married her boyfriend, Juan Carlos...

Wheeling neighborhood grieves for slain bystander

May 09 2013 | 6:25 pm - The sky is just as blue as it was on the last day of Rafael Orozco's life. The grass might be an even brighter green. And Gizmo, Orozco's muscular pit bull the color of milk chocolate, still rounds the corner of this Wheeling apartment building with...

Reality TV date show doesn't alter single mom's priorities

May 07 2013 | 5:15 am - Suburban mom Renee Trikolas used to envision herself celebrating Mother's Day as part of a perfect family. Now, she is a single mom who reinvented herself, runs her own jewelry business and appears in a dating segment airing Thursday on Steve...

Triple amputee wants Boston victims to know it gets better

May 06 2013 | 6:54 am - It wasn't a bomb blast, but a nearly fatal bout of Legionnaires' disease that led to the amputations of Kent Carson's left arm and both legs last year. Now the Round Lake Beach man is walking, working on driving again and would love to visit the...

Barrington doodler could see her art on Google homepage

May 02 2013 | 5:11 am - Most Americans are familiar with those imaginative doodles that grace the Google homepage each day. But in a suprise schoolwide assembly Wednesday, a girl at Barrington Middle School at Station Campus learned her artwork is a finalist in a...

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