Retired West Chicago newspaper publisher dies

H.W. “Bill” Treudt, a retired suburban journalist and publisher, died Wednesday at his son’s home in West Chicago. He was 89.

Treudt spent his career with the West Chicago Press, working as a reporter, photographer, editor and eventually publisher. His grandfather, William Treudt, founded the newspaper when he bought an existing publication in 1911 and renamed it.

The Press remained in the Treudt family until Bill Treudt retired in 1979.

Born in Bucyrus, Ohio, Bill Treudt was studying journalism at the University of Illinois when World War II broke out, said Steve Treudt, one of his sons. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in January 1943 but contracted tuberculosis and was honorably discharged that June before he could be shipped overseas.

“It was one of those things that stuck with him,” said Steve Treudt, also of West Chicago. “He was always disappointed that he didn’t serve in a higher capacity.”

After recovering stateside, Bill Treudt went to work at Howard Aircraft, a West Chicago company that made airplanes for the war effort. It stood on what is now the DuPage Airport, Steve Treudt said.

It was there that Treudt met the woman he would marry, Joan Larsen.

“She caught his eye, and that was the beginning of that,” Steve Treudt said.

Bill Treudt became editor of the weekly West Chicago Press in the early 1970s and ran the newspaper until the end of the decade. It was later sold.

Steve Treudt and his brother, Bruce, continue to run the West Chicago Printing Co., another company his father operated.

Bill Treudt loved West Chicago and was involved in the community, working with the chamber of commerce and other community organizations, his son recalled.

After retiring, Treudt moved to Kentucky. Diagnosed with cancer, he died at his son Bruce’s home with his family at his bedside.

Visitation is scheduled to run from 3 to 8 p.m. Monday, with a 7 p.m. service, all at the Norris-Walen-Segert Funeral Home, 132 Fremont St., West Chicago.

Interment will be private.

In addition to his sons, Treudt’s survivors include two additional adult children, Terry Treudt and Janice Sickinger; eight grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.