Dec. 19--Todd Fandell spent 27 years as a reporter and editor at print publications in Chicago including the Tribune and a short-lived city magazine called Chicago Times.
"He was an excellent editor and had a superb news judgment," said retired Bloomberg managing editor Joe Winski, who worked with Fandell at the Wall Street Journal, the Tribune and Advertising Age. "He really encouraged journalists to write instead of just report and he was so thrilled when somebody would turn in a nice story that was just beyond what might be expected."
Fandell, 79, died of complications from multiple myeloma Dec. 15 at Evanston Hospital, said his wife of 55 years, Elaine B. Fandell, a retired editor with Pioneer Press. He was a longtime Wilmette resident.
Born in Chicago, Fandell grew up in Berwyn and Oak Park, and graduated from Oak Park and River Forest High School. He studied architecture for a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before transferring to Northwestern University. After time in the Army he returned to Northwestern to earn a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1963 and a master's degree in journalism in 1964.
While at Northwestern, Fandell met his future wife, whom he took on their first date to a Chicago Blackhawks game.
In 1963, the Wall Street Journal hired Fandell as a Chicago-based reporter.
"He had a lovely group of mentors there. He really learned a lot at the Wall Street Journal," his wife said.
The paper later transferred Fandell from its Chicago office to the paper's St. Louis bureau, where he was bureau chief "for a two-person office," his wife said with a laugh. He then was transferred to the paper's New York office, and he moved his family to New Jersey.
In 1976, the Tribune's financial editor, Alvin Nagelberg, hired Fandell as his assistant business editor, a role that involved reporting and editing stories. Nagelberg said Fandell was hired in part in the belief he could lure reporters and editors from the Wall Street Journal, which is precisely what happened over the next several years.
"I found him to be a very meticulous person," Nagelberg said. "He took a lot of time developing his stories, and he thought about things for a long time. And he was a very hardworking, very smart reporter who would dig into a story and find sources."
Fandell left the Tribune in 1980 to join Chicago-based Crain Communications as a corporate editor. In 1981, Fandell became the editor of Advertising Age magazine, which is published by Crain.
"Todd brought a tremendous degree of professionalism to Advertising Age and Crain Communications," said Better Government Association executive Bob Reed, who worked for Fandell at Advertising Age. "He was brought in to raise the game, and he did it by bringing in good people, but he also was an editorial visionary, and he thought big and he was always thinking about how the publication could do more and be bigger and better and have a greater impact."
Former Advertising Age managing editor Larry Edwards said Advertising Age "just jumped up notches" under Fandell's leadership.
"He took the whole editorial part of the publication up dramatically," Edwards said. "And he gave everything to Ad Age while he was there. He worked long hours."
Winski called Fandell "one of the greatest influences on my career."
"Some of my best years in journalism were working with him and for him," Winski said.
Fandell left Advertising Age in 1984. He later co-founded and was editor and publisher of Chicago Times, a bimonthly city magazine that debuted in 1987 and strove to be a more serious and provocative version of Chicago Magazine.
Chicago Times struggled to find its editorial tone and attract subscribers, and its majority shareholder group ousted Fandell in 1989 in an internal dispute over the magazine's management. Fandell sued that group in federal court, alleging breach of contract and securities fraud.
Eager to settle the matter, the majority bloc gave the magazine to Fandell in exchange for ending litigation. Beset by a lack of funding, however, the magazine ceased publication in 1990.
"Todd just gave everything to that magazine," Edwards said.
In retirement, Fandell worked as an election judge in Wilmette and took up running. In 2012, he finished in second place in his age group in the Chicago Area Runners Association's competitive circuit race series.
Fandell also is survived by a daughter, Sarah; a son, Ken; a brother, Richard; a sister, Mary Ellen Mueller; and four grandchildren.
Visitation is set for 5 to 9 p.m. Mondayat Scott Funeral Home, 1100 Greenleaf Ave. in Wilmette.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
