Author Spotlight: Walter Oleksy, a former Chicago Tribune reporter and magazine editor

Walter Oleksy, author of several drama fiction such as A Midnight Clear: A Dog’s Christmas, Tomorrow: Young Adult/Adult Coming of Age Novel, and The Stolen Smile: Mona Lisa Murders, is a former Chicago Tribune reporter and magazine editor.

For 40 years, Oleksy has been a freelance writer of magazine articles and nonfiction for adults, children, middle readers, young adults. He has authored more than 50 books, nonfiction for adults, and both nonfiction and fiction for young readers.

The author grew up in Chicago from Ukrainian-Austrian parents. He attended the two-year University of Illinois at Navy Pier from 1951 to 1953 where he was vice president of a student organization promoting the need for a four-year university. It was fulfilled later in the form of The University of Illinois in Chicago at Circle Campus. Oleksy was graduated with a degree in journalism from Michigan State University (1953-1955).

After graduation, he worked as a reporter on the Plymouth (Ind.) Pilot-News. He then served two years in the U.S. Army as managing editor of the 3rd Armored Division newspaper, Spearhead, in Fort Knox, Ky., and Frankfurt, Germany, from 1955 to 1957.

He was born on June 24, 1930. Oleksy currently lives in a Chicago suburb with his dog Annie. His latest books are both non-fiction, Aging Well 2020 and Caregiving.