Retired Daily Herald sports reporter, community columnist Reggie Gorski dies at 82
Reggie Gorski, who covered sports and wrote a community column for the Daily Herald over a career that spanned three decades, died last week at the age of 82.
Gorski began working for the Daily Herald in 1982, when her three children became old enough for her to be out of the house more often. Over the next 24 years, she covered high school girls cross country and track, while also penning a neighborhood column focusing on Rolling Meadows.
“I think it was just a keen understanding of community,” her son, Eric Gorski, said of his mother's dedication to telling stories about Rolling Meadows and its residents. “It was our home. It was real community journalism when she did it. She could bring to life the stories of her neighbors. That's what set the newspaper apart from other newspapers.”
Reggie met her husband, George, while both were working for the student newspaper at DePaul University in the 1960s. Their marriage and move to the suburbs followed a period in which she worked out of the lobby of the Palmer House as a regional reservations manager for Hilton Hotels.
“She was really proud of that, as she was of her career in newspapers,” said Eric Gorski, who recalls his mother introducing him to her Daily Herald colleague who covered the Chicago Cubs.
Her work at the Daily Herald ultimately inspired Eric's career in journalism. Today he's the Denver-based managing editor of Chalkbeat, which covers education.
“She knew how powerful words could be and wanted to do justice to the stories of these young athletes,” Eric said of his mother's sports coverage. “She wrote about those kids with the same care she would write about her own.”
Eric Gorski and his two younger sisters had moved away from the area by the time their father died at 65 in 2004. Reggie, who was always proudly independent, continued to live in their longtime home but retired two years later to be able to see her family more — especially her now nine grandchildren.
After a fall in August 2020 that resulted in her right leg being amputated, she moved to an assisted living facility outside Cleveland, near the home of daughter Renee Morgan and her family. But even there she recovered and regained some independence, Eric said.
Despite having contracted COVID-19 last month, her death Oct. 20 was sudden and unexpected, he added.
Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, at Meadows Funeral Home, 3615 Kirchoff Road, in Rolling Meadows. The funeral Mass will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, at St. Colette Catholic Church, 3900 Meadow Drive in Rolling Meadows, where she once served as school board president.
She will be buried alongside her husband at St. Michael's Cemetery in Palatine.
Donations in Reggie's memory can be made to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago at catholiccharities.net.