Nancy Jean SULOK

4 FEB 1950 - 12 MAR 2021

• RESIDENCE: 2006, Mishawaka, IN
• BIRTH: 4 FEB 1950, South Bend, IN
• DEATH: 12 MAR 2021, South Bend, IN

• MARRIAGE: 24 SEP 1978, St Joseph County, IN

INDEX

[N28015] Nancy Jean Sulok
February 4, 1950 ~ March 12, 2021 (age 71)

Nancy Jean Sulok died on Friday, March 12, 2021 after a long and fulfilling life. She was born on February 4, 1950, the daughter of Victor and Anita Sulok, and lived her entire life in the South Bend - Mishawaka area. She was educated at Monroe Elementary, Riley High School and Indiana University South Bend, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in English in 1973. It was at IUSB where she launched her career in journalism, becoming a charter member of The Preface, the student newspaper. It was also at IUSB where he met her husband, Richard S. Feingold, whom she married on September 24, 1978. They enjoyed a happy life together until he died in October 2015, a few days after celebrating their 37th anniversary. Nancy is survived by two sisters, Mary Anne Morris of Ormond Beach, FL and Anita (Tom) Baranowski of Colorado Springs, CO; two brothers, Fred (Judy) Sulok of South Bend and Victor (Melanie) Sulok of Granger. She was preceded in death by her parents and by a brother, Joe. Other survivors include six nieces and two nephews, along with eight great-nieces and nephews. Also surviving is a son, Michael Gregory of Mishawaka, whom she and Dick gave up for adoption in 1975. Nancy and Mike were reunited in March 2019 after Mike obtained his adoption records from the state. Nancy became a reporter at the South Bend Tribune in January 1973 while finishing her degree at IUSB. She worked there for almost 36 years, when her job was among 33 eliminated at the end of 2008. At the Tribune, she started as a reporter and later moved up the ranks to become the metro news editor. A change in management at the Tribune resulted in Nancy becoming a popular columnist, which she did for 10 years before returning to reporting. A groundbreaker, she was the first woman to be hired in some of her editorial positions. She was active in the Indiana Associated Press Managing Editors Association, becoming the first woman to serve as the head of that statewide organization. She also had served on the board of the IUSB Alumni Association, including a year as its chairperson. In 2000, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award form IUSB’s Division of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Nancy later served for 10 years as the advisor for The Preface, returning to her roots to mentor aspiring journalists. Nancy was a long-time member of the South Bend Press Club and served in the past as a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. After leaving the Tribune, Nancy began a part-time job as office manager of the South Bend Alumni Association. She was a key figure in organizing the SBAA’s annual golf tournament, scholarship program, Lunch Club and its South Bend Community Hall of Fame Banquet. She retired from the SBAA in August 2018, although she remained active on the Hall of Fame Committee. After leaving the SBAA job, she became a substitute volunteer for Meals on Wheels. She was a long-time season ticket holder and supporter of the Broadway Theatre League. Nancy and Dick loved to travel, not just around the United States, but also several trips to Europe. They were especially fond of Hawaii, which they visited twice, and Great Britain, which they visited often. Their travels also took them to France, Germany, Austria, and Belgium. She loved to read and solve crossword, jigsaw and other puzzles that kept her mentally challenged. She developed many lifelong relationships with friends dating back to her days at Monroe School and Riley. She helped organize the 50th year reunion for the Riley Class of 1968 in 2018. She also maintained friendships from her days at the Tribune, meeting monthly for lunch with some of them and weekly with another group of them. Despite all of the pleasures she squeezed from life, Nancy struggled since her teenage years with the effects of lupus, an auto-immune disease. She was never expected to live as long as she did, and indeed survived many brushes with death throughout her life. She persisted partly because she decided at an early age to control her illness and not let her illness control her. She was greatly appreciative of the love and support of her family and friends and asks them not to mourn for her. Her struggles are over. According to Nancy’s wishes, there will be no funeral service. A memorial visitation ending with words of comfort will be held on Saturday, March 20, 2021 from 1-3:00 PM at Palmer Funeral Homes - Welsheimer North Chapel, 17033 Cleveland Road, South Bend, IN 46635. Words of comfort will take place promptly at 3:00 PM. Online expressions of sympathy may be left at www.palmerfuneralhomes.com. Memorial contributions may be given to the South Bend Alumni Association, 215 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., South Bend, IN 46601

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Nancy Sulok, 'hard-charging' former South Bend Tribune columnist, dies at 71
By Christian Sheckler South Bend Tribune 23 hrs ago

Nancy J. Sulok, a former longtime South Bend Tribune reporter, editor and columnist who both championed the underdog and exasperated public officials with her hard-charging brand of community journalism, died Friday. She was 71. A lifelong area resident, Sulok started as a reporter at The Tribune in 1973, while finishing a journalism degree at Indiana University South Bend, and rose through the ranks to become city editor and metro editor, directing much of the paper’s local news coverage. She later spent 10 years writing a popular opinion column. Along the way, she sparred with those in positions of power, from politicians to police, and shed light on the everyday hardships that befell local residents, from bungled government paperwork to stolen handicap parking spaces. Sulok also played a lead role in the newspaper’s exposé of a Ku Klux Klan branch that set up its headquarters at an Osceola farm, where white supremacists rallied, burned crosses and practiced with firearms, frightening nearby residents.“There is an old saying that journalists should ‘comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,’ and Nancy lived that maxim,” said Tim Harmon, a former Tribune executive editor who worked with Sulok for more than a decade. “She believed journalists should stand up for the average person.” Nancy Jean Sulok was born Feb. 4, 1950, to Victor and Anita Sulok. She was one of six children. She lived her entire life in the South Bend-Mishawaka area, according to her obituary, and was educated at Monroe Elementary School and Riley High School.
One of her brothers, Fred, said Sulok survived an “inexplicable” illness, likely an auto-immune disorder, that almost killed her and led to a long stay at Riley Children’s Hospital. She was later diagnosed with lupus, Fred said, and lived with complications for the rest of her life. Sulok defied her low life-expectancy and enjoyed a full life that included several trips to Europe and Hawaii with her husband, Richard Feingold, who died in 2015. After giving up a son for adoption, the couple did not raise any children but took their nieces on trips to London and Paris. “She was suffering through this illness her entire life, but it never really stopped her at all,” Fred said. “She just kept plowing through.” Former colleagues recalled Sulok as relentless in her pursuit of the facts, displaying a zeal that earned a mix of admiration and aggravation from public officeholders and other sources of information, not to mention her own bosses and subordinates. One elected official, Harmon recalled, put an underling in charge of reading Sulok’s articles and tallying how many were “unfavorable” to the office. At IU South Bend, Sulok even turned her journalistic gaze on her own brother, when she was a writer for the student newspaper, The Preface, and Fred was student body president. “Nancy being Nancy,” Fred said, “she was naturally a pain in my ass.” As an editor, she wanted her reporters to get every last bit of information she believed was relevant to a story, and refused to settle for less, said Jack Colwell, another former Tribune journalist who worked with Sulok for more than 30 years. “Nancy was very hard-charging in seeking information, and as a result there were times she rubbed some people the wrong way,” Colwell said. “But she never really worried about winning a popularity contest. It was about getting the job done.” Sulok was known to rile the local Fraternal Order of Police with her coverage, which included articles on corruption scandals, drunk-driving arrests and patrolmen who cashed in on so much overtime they earned more money than South Bend’s mayor. St. Joseph County Commissioner Derek Dieter, a former longtime South Bend police officer, said he believed Sulok worked hard to dig up the truth, even if he didn’t always like her conclusions. “If people would fudge stuff, she would go after them,” Dieter said. “If you screwed up or did something wrong, she would find out.”
Some of Sulok’s targets got back at her in 2002, when officials including St. Joseph County Prosecutor Chris Toth and Circuit Judge Terry Crone roasted her at a South Bend Press Club event. Although Sulok reported some splashy stories, she specialized in writing about overlooked people and issues. No subject, it seemed, was too mundane, if it affected someone’s life. “She didn’t write all the time about the famous people in town,” Colwell said. “She would write about someone who seemed to be down and out, who had a problem, and she tried to help them.”