Bruce Sagan (1929-2025)
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Prominent arts patron and newspaper chain owner Bruce Sagan passed away on September 21 at the age of 96, leaving a significant mark in the worlds of Chicago journalism, theatre and dance. As a Steppenwolf Trustee for more than 40 years and board chair from 1987 to 1992, Bruce had a singular impact on Steppenwolf. He led the creation of the company’s permanent artistic home on Halsted Street with the opening of the Downstairs Theater in 1991. Bruce again played a pivotal role in shaping the recently expanded Lefkofsky Arts and Education Center which increases Steppenwolf’s service to youth across Chicago. He also helped lead an effort to relocate the Joffrey Ballet from New York City to Chicago in 1995 and oversaw the creation of the dance company’s permanent home on Randolph Street. Earlier, in the 1960s, Bruce and his then-wife, Judith Sagan, purchased the Harper Theater, converted it into a performance space, and launched the Harper Dance Festival, which lasted through the ’60s. His relationship with the Joffrey Ballet began when he invited the then-New York based company to perform at the festival. The space has since been converted into a movie theater.
In 2024, President Biden presented Bruce with the National Medal of Arts, the highest honor for artists and arts patrons in United States, praising him as “a Chicago journalism legend and lifelong supporter of the performing arts” whose “seven decades of leadership and stewardship in building, protecting, and uplifting local newspapers, voices, artists, and dancers, have inspired his beloved city and enriched the tapestry of American life and culture.” Bruce was born Feb. 1, 1929, in New Jersey to George and Esther Sagan, Jewish immigrants from what is now western Ukraine. His mother was a homemaker, his father owned a company that made coats for girls. His cousin was the astronomer Carl Sagan. He attended the University of Wisconsin before transferring to the University of Chicago where he wrote for the student newspaper and briefly studied law before realizing school wasn’t for him. He dropped out and drove a cab, and worked a late shift on a V8 juice assembly line in a Campbell’s Soup factory. He also worked as a copy boy at Hearst’s International News Service, then as a reporter for the City News Bureau, known as the boot camp of journalism, where he covered everything from shootings to City Hall, and witnessed an electric chair execution. In 1953, at age 24, Mr. Sagan borrowed $2,500 from friends and family and bought the Hyde Park Herald, the city’s oldest community newspaper. Eventually, he built one of the country’s largest community newspaper groups, which, when he sold it in 1986, included nearly 30 papers that had a combined circulation of more than 400,000, with the Daily Southtown (formerly known as the Southtown Economist) as its flagship. He also was once one of the owners of the Chicago Sun-Times. Additionally, Bruce co-founded the Hyde Park Federal Savings and Loan to fight redlining and is a past chair of the Illinois Arts Council board. He also served on the Chicago Public Library Board, helping to create the Chicago Cultural Center. He is survived by his sons Paul and Alex Sagan; his second wife, Bette Cerf Hill; his stepdaughters Catherine Hill, Teresa Neptune and Diana Lourenco Hill; as well as 12 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Per Bruce — “The arts are crucial to the quality of life in our complex changing world. They help us to express ourselves and communicate to others. They both entertain us and educate us. The National Medal of Arts acknowledges both the creative genius of the artist, and the arts patrons and supporters, like me, who help make sure that the art is shared with the community. I have found my work with artists and their creative energies to be stimulating and internally rewarding. To be rewarded in a public manner by the National Endowment for the Arts? What can one say but: Thank you.” With thanks to the Chicago Sun-Times and Steppenwolf Theatre. |