Jim Schurz grew up in a newspaper family in South Bend. His father, Franklin Sr., was editor and publisher of the South Bend Tribune, SCI's flagship paper, and SCI's chairman.
Upbringing aside, Jim Schurz clearly was a newspaper man, relatives said.
"He enjoyed the spoken and written word," Franklin Schurz Jr. said.
Todd Schurz said some dinner get-togethers had a quirky requirement: Everyone had to speak in a haiku, a form of Japanese poetry, to join the conversation.
"There were long silences, punctuated by laughter," he said.
Jim Schurz attended Northwestern University, then Stanford University, where he earned a journalism degree.
During his college days, he worked at the South Bend Tribune and the Oklahoma City Times.
He served two years in the U.S. Army with the 33rd AAA Battalion.
During his news career, he belonged to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Associated Press Managing Editors and Sigma Delta Chi, which now is known as the Society of Professional Journalists.
