National Medal of Arts recipient Bruce Sagan with President and First Lady Biden. Photo courtesy of White House
Bruce Sagan passed away Sunday, September 21, 2025. There have been many articles written about his remarkable life. From my perspective, he was one of our own since he and his wife, Bette Cerf Hill, lived in Dearborn Park for a time. In fact, they lived in my building. You can read Brian Hiegglke’s appreciation of his good friend on page 11, September 30, 2025 issue. As for myself, I first heard the name Bruce Sagan when I graduated from college in 1970 and a journalism teacher who helped me line up interviews said, “We’ll have you interview with Bruce Sagen’s newspaper” (The Southtown Economist). I didn’t get the job. When we moved to Dearborn Park, I saw his name on the building’s directory and couldn’t believe it was the same man. When I joined the condo board, I headed a window replacement group buy for fogged windows. He replaced all the windows in his double unit. And then he says to me, “why don’t you do the same for screens? I can’t get anyone to come out to replace one screen.” So I did. We had 127 new screens manufactured for owners who signed up. And that was 20 years ago and I’m still doing windows and screens. I’ll let the articles in this issue impress you as it did me, with all that he accomplished. But for us in the neighborhood, The Printers Row Lit Fest is the crown jewel born from the energy of Bette Cerf Hill and the backing of Bruce Sagen. See articles on page 11-14.