orig. Michael Royko
born Sept. 19, 1932, Chicago, Ill., U.S.
died April 29, 1997, Chicago
U.S. columnist.
Royko cut short his college education to serve in the air force during the Korean War. In 1959 he joined the Chicago Daily News , becoming a full-time columnist in 1964. His irreverent, acerbic, and insightful political and social essays reflected his working-class ethnic origins, often exposing injustices visited on ordinary people. He later moved to the Chicago Sun-Times and then to the Chicago Tribune . His widely syndicated column earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1972. He published collections of his columns and the best-selling Boss (1971), on Richard J. Daley .