Ralph Amasa Zahorik, 83, died in the early morning hours of May 23, 2022, from COVID-19. He was with his daughter Kristina Zahorik and his son Tom Zahorik was on the phone. His underlying health issues, a product of the tobacco industry, caused him to move in with Kristina and her vaccinated family in McHenry County, Ill., as the pandemic hit in 2020. Previously, he lived in Waukegan, Ill., where he was a newspaperman for 40 years writing for weekly and daily newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and the Lake County News-Sun.
A memorial service was held May 28, 2022, at Davenport Family Funeral Home in Crystal Lake, Ill.
Ralph was born in Chicago in 1939. His family moved from the Southside Woodlawn neighborhood to Lisbon in 1947. Ralph made lifelong friends wherever he went. He had a healthy sense of humor, believed in uplifting working families, was intensely curious about life and people, loved his eight siblings and was proud of his work life. In Iowa, he worked on farms as a teen, played basketball like his father, was valedictorian and graduated from the University of Iowa in 1967 with a degree in cartography. He completed his degree due to the benefits of the GI Bill. While in college, he drove a cab where he met the mother of his children. He was also an attendant at the university’s psychiatric hospital, which underscored his sense of compassion. He also worked as a bartender, laborer, truck driver, furniture mover, iron worker and assembly line worker.
He served in the 1st Armored Division based at Fort Hood for two years in the early 1960s and in the Army Reserves for four years from 1964-1967. His division was in Florida during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. As a veteran, Zahorik got vaccinated through The Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center.
Married in October 1964, Ralph moved with his wife, stepson, and daughter to Illinois in 1968. His family grew in 1969 with the birth of his son. Ralph maintained an exceptional collection of books and strange objects, including tomes about the trolls of Scandinavia, peculiar statues, costume jewelry, ancient maps and rotund birds. During his life in Illinois, he worked as a clerk and gas station attendant before serving within the newspaper world as a reporter, copy editor, associate editor, managing editor, city editor and columnist.
Like his father and many brothers, Ralph was a proud active union member. He was a 50-year member of the Chicago Newspaper Guild (AFL-CIO), now the Chicago News Guild, and a sector of the Communication Works of America (CWA). He served on the Executive Board of the Chicago Guild and chair of the local’s Waukegan Unit for 18 years, and later as chair of the local’s General Press Unit. He was an active member of the Northeastern Illinois Federation of Labor Council for 20 years, briefly serving on its Executive Board. He wrote for Chicago area labor publications and took active roles in supporting working people. He championed union organizing drives and striking workers throughout the state and country, joining the Chicago Solidarity Committee, delivering food to striking workers and rallying at the Staley corn processing plant in Decatur, Ill. He also marched in the massive 1991 Washington, D.C., Union Solidarity Day Rally and in the 1980s, Hormel strike in Austin, Minn. He was proud to provide grassroots campaigning and organizing for Democratic candidates, especially former President Barack Obama.
Ralph is preceded in death by his parents, John Zahorik, Sr. and Sonya Holmboe Zahorik; his siblings, Noel Zahorik Johnson and Charlie Zahorik. Ralph’s father died in 1983 and was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and a savvy business agent for Iron Workers Local 89 in Cedar Rapids. Four generations of Zahoriks have worked in the trades in Illinois and Iowa. Ralph’s mother died in 1993 and was an artist known for her Norwegian rosemaling and whimsical wall murals and paintings.
Ralph Zahorik is survived and much loved by his daughter, Kristina Zahorik (Paul Sindberg); his son, Thomas Zahorik (Val Newcomb); their mother and his former wife, Bonnie Elliott Zahorik; his grandchildren, Sonya, Paul, Peri, Ryan and Ali Sindberg and Jane and Elliott Zahorik; his siblings, Eileen Dighton, John, Frank, Robert, Karin and David Zahorik and his nieces and nephews, Joe Zahorik, John Zahorik, Marey Stone, Jill Linder, Kathleen Castro and Ralph Johnson.
Ralph also leaves behind his dear friends Judy Raibley Masterson and Robert Sanders, whom he treated like a son and grew up in his house, and Robert’s children, Nick, Jessica, Stephanie, and Johnathon.
The family asks you get vaccinated and organize.
Memorial donations can be made in Ralph Zahorik’s name to any of the following:
ProPublica 211 W. Wacker Dr., Third Floor, Chicago, IL 60606, www.propublica.org/
Labor & Education Research Project 7435 Michigan Avenue, Detroit MI 48210-2227 www.labornotes.org
Institute for Nonprofit News 8549 Wilshire Blvd #2294, Beverly Hills, CA 90211 https://inn.org/donate/
The Environmental Defense Fund, www.edf.org, The American Civil Liberties Union, www.aclu.org