Jon Margolis, former Newsday reporter, dies at 83

Former Newsday reporter Jon Margolis in September 1971 called his wife in the middle of the work day to say: "There's something happening at Attica and I'm going." 

Margolis would spend at least the next week away from his family covering the deadly uprising at Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo where inmates revolted over living conditions and other human rights issues, gaining control of a portion of the prison and taking 42 staffers hostage during a four-day negotiation period that ended with state police stepping in. Forty-three people died, including 11 correction officers.

"It was pretty intense. I don't think he expected to be gone that long. He was there from the beginning and then after when the troopers came," said Sally Margolis, his wife of nearly 60 years. 

Jon Margolis, who served as Newsday's Albany bureau chief before leaving in 1973 to become a Washington, D.C.-based national political correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, died Jan. 29 after a short illness at University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington. He was 83.

During his 23 years with the Chicago Tribune he covered four presidential elections and was on the panel of the 1988 vice presidential debate between Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle. In 1989, he moved to Chicago to work for the Tribune as a sports columnist, correspondent-at-large and general columnist.

But, according to his family, it was his coverage of the early days of the riots at the Attica prison — including being the pool reporter responsible for feeding information to all news outlets — that helped launch his national reputation. 

"Inside the big gray walls of the prison, one cellblock was in the hands of prisoners, and five fires smoldered. At least 12 guards were injured, and the prison was in shambles. What had happened was by far the worst disturbance in the 40-year history of this big maximum-security prison and one of the worst riots ever in the state prison system. And it was not over," Margolis wrote in an article that appeared in Newsday on Sept. 10, 1971. 

Margolis was born Sept. 25, 1940, in Trenton, New Jersey, to William and Mars Margolis. He attended Rutgers Preparatory School in New Brunswick and studied history at Oberlin College, where he met his future wife, Sally, graduating in 1962.

After college, he served as a U.S. Army reservist and worked as a copy boy for the New York Daily News. His first job as a reporter was at the Bergen Record in Hackensack, New Jersey. He went on to work at the Miami Herald and the Concord Monitor before joining Newsday in 1967. 

His family described him as being objective in his work and at home. 

He "remained politically neutral even in family conversations," said his daughter, Katey Margolis, 55, of Denton, Texas. “As a father, he wanted to understand the truth about everything. If I had an opinion, it had to be backed up."

Margolis authored three books published in the 1990s: "The Last Innocent Year: America in 1964," “The Quotable Bob Dole: Witty, Wise and Otherwise” and "How to Fool Fish with Feathers," a beginner's guide to fly-fishing.

He was a devoted fan of Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers and also the New York Mets, his family said. 

He loved to read literature, nonfiction and poetry. He was known to quote the poet William Butler Yeats and use sports metaphors in his political writing, his wife said. 

Margolis studied Yiddish and French throughout his life and enjoyed dogs, jazz, opera and a great cup of coffee. He was proud to have visited 49 states and regretted never getting to Hawaii, his wife said. 

In addition to his wife and daughter, Margolis is survived by his sister, Susanna, of Manhattan; son, Michael, of Albuquerque, New Mexico; a daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.