James Podgers, Retired ABA Journal Editor, Dies at 67
| Author | Debra Cassens Weiss |
| Pages | 68-68 |
PHOTOGRAPH BY EARNIE GRAFTON
68 || ABA JOURNAL APRIL 2018
Your ABA
James Podgers, Retired
ABA Journal Editor, Dies at 67
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Funeral services took place in
February for James Podgers,
67, a retired ABA Journal
editor known for his deep knowledge
of the American Bar Association and
its inner workings. He died as this
year’s ABA Midyear Meeting opened
in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Midyear and annual meetings were
assignments he regularly covered
during his years with the magazine.
Podgers died from islet cell neuro-
endocrine cancer, barely one year
after his retirement. He had battled
the cancer for 14 years, but that
didn’t stop him from spending long
days as an assistant managing editor
sharpening copy and writing articles
about two of his favorite topics: the
association and international law.
Podgers’ wife, Cis Redmond, says
her husband would have wanted
his specific cancer diagnosis in his
obituary. “He would complain bit-
terly that obits usually don’t include
the cause of death; I laugh thinking
of him wondering how this or that
person died, and he didn’t even know
them!” she adds.
Podgers interviewed a wide range
of people in his work for the Journal.
They included former President
Gerald Ford, Telford Taylor (an
attorney who assisted Robert Jackson
at the Nuremberg tribunals), Bianca
Jagger and numerous ABA pres-
idents. While on assignment in
London, he approached the podium
after a speech by Margaret Thatcher
and pilfered her paper clip, Redmond
recalls.
He wrote about political divisions
in the ABA, the Nuremberg trials,
the creation of the International
Criminal Court and the Hawaiian
sovereignty movement. His last
article, written for the Journal as a
freelancer, profiles a lawyer whose
hobby is bullfighting.
“Jim was the picture of a classic
Chicago journalist,” says Molly
McDonough, ABA Journal editor
and publisher. “He was inquisitive,
dogged and skeptical.”
Podgers was “truly devoted to the
craft,” McDonough says. “Jim was
a good listener, a serious editor and
maintained his dry sense of humor
till the end. In my last conversation
with him about a week before he
died, Jim called me in part to let me
know he wouldn’t be able to turn in
his last assignment.
“He’ll always have a place in our
hearts and ABA Journal lore.”
Podgers, a lawyer, worked for the
ABA for 30 years in two dierent
stints. He left the Journal after three
years as a reporter and rejoined
the sta in 1992 as an editor. He
also worked as a reporter for the
Herald-News in Joliet, Illinois,
and as the assistant dean for public
aairs at the Chicago-Kent College
of Law. He earned a bachelor’s
degree in history from the University
of Wisconsin at Madison and a JD
from Chicago-Kent.
‘HE LOVED THE ABA’
Podgers also had a love of travel,
books, jazz, golf, friendly poker
games and the Wisconsin Badgers.
He was the lead saxophone player
in a big band group and a charter
member of FATS at UW-Madison.
FATS stands for Federation of
All-Star Tummy Stuers, Redmond
says. Other members included a
professor, a doctor, a priest, a radio
personality and a comedian. “He col-
lected interesting friends,” she says.
In a bereavement notice to ABA
staers, Reginald Davis, Journal
managing editor, noted that Podgers
was known for his “cogent questions”
at the end of stawide information
sessions known as town hall meet-
ings. Before his death, Podgers
received an email about another
staer “who is bravely taking over
his task of asking the questions at
the town halls,” Redmond says.
“We got a charge out of that. He
loved the ABA.”
In addition to his wife, Podgers
is survived by their children, Hilary,
Kevin and Michael. Q
See a selection of articles by James
Podgers at ABAJournal.com.
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