Jim Klobuchar, longtime Minnesota newspaper reporter and columnist and father of U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, has died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
He was 93.
Sen. Klobuchar said that throughout his life her father was “a champion of those on the outside” and used his words to stand up for people.
In her bid for president, Sen. Klobuchar talked often about her father’s public struggles with alcoholism and how he helped others by sharing his story.
Jim Klobuchar worked as a reporter in Bismarck and for The Associated Press in Minnesota before getting a sports writing job for what is now the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 1961.
He retired from the Star Tribune in 1995.
AP
(Photo: Office of Sen. Klobuchar)
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Sen. Klobuchar statement:
“Throughout his life my dad was a champion of those on the outside. Through his writing he gave voice to the struggles and triumphs of countless Minnesotans. He grew up the son of an iron ore miner, attended a community college in Northern Minnesota, and graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Minnesota. He worked as a reporter in Bismarck, North Dakota, and for the Associated Press in Minnesota. He started reporting and covering sports for the StarTribune in 1961 and wrote a general public interest column—often filled with good humor—for years. When he retired in 1995 he had written 8400 columns and had been voted the nation’s “outstanding columnist” in 1984 by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
“My dad went from that hardscrabble mining town of Ely, Minnesota, to travel the world, interviewing everyone from Mike Ditka to Ginger Rogers to Ronald Reagan. He led adventure trips from Minnesota’s bike trails to the mountains of Nepal.
“Through his columns my dad told stories of the “heroes among us,”—ordinary people doing extraordinary things. He used his words to stand up for people. But he also stood up for me, from urging me on to finish a father/daughter ten-day 1100-mile bike trip from Minneapolis to Jackson Hole, to believing that a woman could actually win a Minnesota U.S. Senate seat.
“His own struggles with alcoholism were very public and he helped others by sharing those stories, as well as how his faith and family and friends helped him on his lifelong journey to redemption and sobriety.
“Even to the end, as he lived the final chapter of his life with Alzheimer’s, he was still singing songs and telling incredible stories to my sister Meagan and me. He loved our state. He loved journalism. He loved sports and adventure. And we loved him.”
As a veteran, Jim Klobuchar will be buried at Fort Snelling in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A public celebration of his life will be announced at a later date.
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