Our Benefactor – Quote Slideshow Test

Robert Rutherford McCormick, second son of Robert Sanderson McCormick and Katharine McCormick, is born on July 30 in Chicago. He is known as “Bertie.”

The McCormick family moves to London. While his father serves as second secretary at the U.S. Embassy there, Bertie attends Langley School then Ludgrove School in Hampshire.

The McCormick family returns to Chicago. The steam engines, power turbines and other technology displayed at the World’s Columbian Exposition enthralls Robert.

Joseph Medill, Robert’s grandfather, dies. Medill, a deeply influential figure in Robert’s life who was mayor of Chicago then editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune. Robert is at his bedside.

After graduating from Yale, earning his law degree from Northwestern, and being elected a Chicago alderman, Robert is elected president of the Chicago Sanitary District.

After the death of his uncle a year earlier, Robert is elected president of the Chicago Tribune. He shares responsibilities with his cousin, Joseph Medill Patterson.

Robert marries Amy de Houle Irwin Adams. The couple spends their honeymoon touring war-torn Europe. Robert visits several fronts in Russia, writing stories for the Tribune.

McCormick leads the unit providing crucial artillery support of the 1st Division in the Battle of Cantigny, the first major American victory of World War I. Later he is promoted to colonel in the Illinois Guard.

A jury determines that the Tribune libeled industrialist Henry Ford but, in a sign of respect for Colonel McCormick, penalizes him six cents for damages and six cents for court costs.

Funded by the Chicago Tribune and McCormick, Northwestern University establishes the Medill School of Journalism, named for the Colonel’s grandfather and Tribune editor, Joseph Medill.

The Colonel receives the Distinguished Service Medal from the U.S. Army for “rare leadership and organizing ability, unusual executive ability, and sound technical judgment.”

McCormick purchases fledgling radio station WDAP and gives it new call letters—WGN—for World’s Greatest Newspaper, the Chicago Tribune motto.

McCormick publishes his book, “The Freedom of the Press: A History and an Argument.”

Amy McCormick dies. Mourners gather for her burial at Cantigny, the family estate in west suburban Wheaton. The Colonel orders a plane to fly over and drop rose petals.

McCormick marries Maryland Mathison Hooper, a close friend of his first wife and 17 years his junior.

Chicago’s second TV station, WGN, debuts with a broadcast of Golden Gloves amateur boxing, sponsored by the Tribune. The station would become famous as the home of the Chicago Cubs.

Colonel Robert R. McCormick dies at age 74 and is buried at Cantigny. His estate is estimated at $55 million and his will orders that 500-acre Cantigny be used as a public park and museum. The will also establishes the Robert R. McCormick Charitable Trust.