John Husar (1937-2000)

John Husar, 63, longtime outdoor columnist and sportswriter for the Chicago Tribune, hunter, hiker, and champion of all things wild and wonderful, died on July 20 of liver disease.

Husar was an environmentalist who happened to be a fine writer. He was an explorer who communicated the large and small joys of his discoveries. He was a visionary who understood the importance of our past, particularly our overlooked and forgotten local history. Husar called the Des Plaines River valley "Our Hidden Wilderness" and promoted the nation’s first Heritage Corridor, the Illinois and Michigan Canal. He called the Chicago Portage National Historic Site "our sacred ground" and wrote some of his last published words about it.

"When I met John Husar, and later got to know him, it wasn’t because I was out there with him angling for smallies or hiking through forest preserves," recalls Gary Mechanic of the Des Plaines River Alliance. "It was because he was an ‘outdoor writer’ who showed up inside rooms where the plans and decisions for our natural resources are made. He understood that our ecosystem includes politicians, bureaucrats, and taxpayers. He knew the natural world includes the best values and ignorance of the species at the top of the food chain. He understood that what happens in those rooms can make more of a difference than the weather in determining which of his beloved fish and birds flourish or vanish."

Some years ago Husar wrote a column praising the citizens volunteering to restore native prairies in this region. "And now and then," he wrote, "you’ll [meet] a very high grade of human, some of the best you’ll find in chance encounters. These are the self-appointed stewards of these special pockets of nature. . . . To them, stewardship is as legitimate an outdoor activity as fishing or hunting or hiking or biking, albeit much more vital."

Chicago Tribune's obituary of John Husar