Louis “Studs” Terkel was born in 1912, in New York, in a Russian Jewish family. When Studs was eight, he and his family moved to Chicago, where he graduated the University of Chicago Law School in 1934.

He decided, however, not to follow a career in law, but instead decided to work as concierge at the rooming house his parents ran. Later, he also joined a theater group.

Studs started working in radio, doing everything and anything, from soap opera voices to a news anchor and sports caster, writing scripts and advertisings. His most famous program was “The Studs Terkel Program”. Between 1952 and 1997, Studs Terkel was on WFMT Chicago every weekday. He interviewed a wide array of guests, ranging from Bob Dylan and Leonard Bernstein to Alexander Frey.

He also had an unscripted drama he starred in, called “Stud’s Place”. The story centers on a diner where famous people pass through every day. His television show was inducted into the positive examples of the Chicago School of television.
Terkel married Ida Goldberg in 1939, and together they had a son, Paul, who was name a after Paul Robeson. As a writer, he is best known for “Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression”, “Working” and “The Good War”, winning a Pulitzer Prize for the latter in 1985.

The famous American radio personality and writer passed away on Friday, at the age of 96, in his home in Chicago. His son said his father had “lived a long, eventful, satisfying though sometimes tempestuous life”. He was remarkable for listening to both the ordinary and extraordinary people, from Marlene Dietrich and Bertrand Russell to a parking lot attendant and a barber, and for getting just as interesting stories from both.

Studs suffered two open-heart surgeries, the one from 2005 being a high risk, especially since he was 93 at the time.
Studs planned his own funeral, including the epitaph – “Curiosity did not kill this cat”, the readings – Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw, the music – Schubert and Big Bill Broonzy. Finally, he waned to be incinerated, and his and his wife’s ash to be spread in one of Chicago’s square, where he began his “career” from a soapbox.