Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
The Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans celebrated a beloved media veteran and a revered elected official at this year’s Dante luncheon. Radio and TV news legend Bob Sirott received this year’s Dante Award at the event, and Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White willreceived the JCCIA’S Dominic DiFrisco Award. The following profiles were provided by the organization:
BOB SIROTT
Generations of Midwesterners have grown up with lifelong Chicagoan Bob Sirott, first as a top Chicago rock ’n’ roll DJ in the ’70s and later as a news anchor on CBS2, NBC5 and Chicago Tonight on PBS. Bob also worked as an anchor/ correspondent for the 1985 CBS-TV network newsmagazine “West 57th.”
Bob’s frequent broadcast partner is his wife, Marianne Murciano, who co-anchored the ground-breaking Emmy award-winning “Fox Thing In The Morning” on Fox32 in the ’90s.
Bob’s radio career began when he was 21. While working as a producer and writer at NBC Radio in Chicago, he landed a summer on-air job at WBBM-FM. Two years later, the former legendary Chicago rock radio powerhouse WLS took notice of his popularity and hired him for their 2-6 p.m. shift, where Bob achieved great success for the next seven years before moving to television in 1980.
Bob currently hosts “Icons of the Ivy,” a series of interviews with Chicago Cubs legends on the Cubs Marquee Sports Network. And after several previous stints on WGN Radio, he’s back home on “Chicago’s Very Own” AM 720 weekday mornings 6-10.
Bob is a graduate of Chicago’s Columbia College.
Of his many awards and achievements, he considers being the voice of the coal mine exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry his proudest accomplishment.
JESSE WHITE
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White is Illinois’ 37th Secretary of State. White was first elected to the office in 1998 and won landslide victories in 2002, in which he won all 102 counties, and again in 2006 and 2010. On November 4, 2014, White was re-elected to a record-breaking fifth term, winning another landslide victory by a 2-to-1 margin in which he earned over 2.3 million votes statewide – more than 230,000 votes than any other statewide constitutional candidate. White became Illinois’ longest serving Secretary of State on May 30, 2014.
The Illinois Secretary of State’s office is the largest and most diverse office of its kind in the nation, providing more direct services to the people of Illinois than any other public agency. White’s office issues state ID cards, vehicle license plates and titles; registers corporations; enforces the Illinois Securities Act; administers the Organ/Tissue Donor Program; licenses drivers; and maintains driver records. As State Librarian, Secretary White oversees the State Library and literacy programs, and as State Archivist, he maintains records of legal or historic value.
Under White’s leadership, customer service has been improved through the use of technology as well as modernizing and streamlining operations. Wait times in facilities are shorter than ever before. Illinois has become a national leader in road safety as White strengthened DUI laws, reformed the CDL program and overhauled teen driving guidelines. As a result, traffic fatalities have decreased, with drunk driving deaths down nearly 50 percent and teen driving deaths reduced by 51 percent. In 2014, White was inducted into the Illinois High School & College Driver Education Association Hall of Fame. Prior to his election as Secretary of State, White served as Cook County Recorder of Deeds — a job to which he was first elected in 1992 and re-elected in 1996. Before that, he served 16 years in the Illinois General Assembly, representing the most culturally, economically and racially diverse district in Illinois.
In 1959, White founded the internationally known Jesse White Tumbling Team to serve as a positive alternative for children residing in and around the Chicago area. Since its inception, more than 17,500 young men and women have performed with the team. White has spent 58 years working as a volunteer with the team to help kids stay away from gangs, drugs, alcohol and smoking, and to help set at-risk youth on the path to success. The program has received international praise.
This year the team will make more than 1,500 performances using seven units, consisting of 225 young men and women. Currently, there are 51 members enrolled in college. In 2014, the Chicago Park District opened the Jesse White Community Center and Field House in honor of White’s lifelong contributions to the community. In addition, a school in Hazel Crest, Illinois, was recently renamed the Jesse C. White Learning Academy, and a Chicago street was designated Jesse White Way in honor of White.
White served our country as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division and as a member of the Illinois National Guard and Reserve. He played professional baseball with the Chicago Cubs organization, which was followed by a 33-year career with the Chicago Public Schools as a teacher and administrator.
Jesse White earned his Bachelor of Science from Alabama State College (now Alabama State University) in 1957, where he was a two-sport athlete earning all-conference honors in baseball and basketball. In May 1995, White was inducted into the Southwestern Athletic Conference Hall of Fame. He was an all-city baseball and basketball player at Chicago’s Waller High School (now Lincoln Park High School) and was inducted into the Chicago Public League Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in June 1995. In 1999, he was inducted into the Alabama State University Sports Hall of Fame. Born in Alton, Illinois, he now lives on Chicago’s Near North Side. White has two daughters, Glenna and Lorraine, and two grandchildren, Jesse and Susan.
