“He always triple-checked everything,” Shanahan’s daughter Maureen said.
Another daughter, Deirdre, said her father — a veteran newsman who covered City Hall for the…
By Kathianne Boniello
John “Jack” Shanahan was the kind of reporter who hated to get things wrong.
“He always triple-checked everything,” Shanahan’s daughter Maureen said.
Another daughter, Deirdre, said her father — a veteran newsman who covered City Hall for the Associated Press — taught his eight children several things.
“He taught us to speak our minds, especially when it was to tell the truth,” she said. “And to always have three sources.”
Shanahan, a Queens native who was known as the “dean” of the City Hall press room, died of a heart attack Friday in his Little Neck home. He was 68.
A hardworking reporter who stayed active well after his 1998 retirement from the Associated Press, Shanahan was remembered Tuesday for his devotion to his craft, family, and religion.
A cousin, James Gill, addressed the large crowd of family and friends who attended Shanahan’s funeral at St. Anastasia’s Church in Douglaston.
“My cousin Johnny was universally recognized for his unflinching and uncompromising honesty and integrity, not only in the profession that he loved and served so well but outside of it,” Gill said. “Johnny hit the top of the mark — we would do well to emulate him. I’m certainly going to try.”
His children, who approached the microphone to eulogize their father as a group, remembered a man who gave his family top priority.
“My dad was awesome,” daughter Kathleen said. “He went to church on a Saturday night or Sunday, but it didn’t stop there. He was a shining example of what we’re supposed to be.”
Shanahan grew up in Astoria and lived in Jackson Heights with his wife Anne before moving to Little Neck in 1960. He served in the Marines in 1959 and was a retired lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves for 29 years, his family said.
A past president and longtime member of the New York Press Club, Shanahan was a graduate of Fordham University and worked for the Long Island Star Journal before joining the Associated Press in 1963. While working at the wire service, Shanahan served as chief political writer, news editor, City Hall correspondent and day book editor.
Anne Marino, executive director of the New York Press Club, said Shanahan signed on with the group in 1959 and served as president from 1971-1972.
Never one to shy away from community service, Shanahan was also involved in the Inner Circle political writers’ club; the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a fraternal Roman Catholic group that operates the St. Patrick’s Day Parade; the Marine Corps League; the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation; and was a member of the Westmoreland Civic Association.
Colleagues in the Marine Corps League said Shanahan had been working before his death to secure meeting space for the group at Fort Totten in Bayside.
“He was a wonderful man,” friend Jerry Vilbig said.
The longtime reporter stayed busy after retirement, working part-time for The Tablet, a newspaper of the Brooklyn-Queens Roman Catholic Diocese. Shanahan was also a contributing writer for the TimesLedger Newspapers.
Fellow reporters remembered Shanahan as a hard-worker who prized accuracy in his work.
Joseph O’Brien, a former United Press International reporter, praised his one-time competitor.
“You had to be good because he was going to get it right,” O’Brien said. “He was always a great companion.”
Dan Andrews, another former UPI staffer, worked across from Shanahan in the crowded City Hall press room for four years.
“He was my guiding light as he was for a lot of other reporters,” said Andrews, now a spokesman for Borough President Helen Marshall. “He was a good newsman — he’d work on a story and make sure he had both sides. He was very concerned about being fair and accurate.”
Mark Marchese, a former press secretary for the Port Authority and former Mayors Abe Beame and Ed Koch, dealt with Shanahan for years.
“He was a solid reporter who worked his way up,” Marchese said. “Jack would really bend over backwards for a young person who was learning” the profession.
Shanahan is survived by his wife of nearly 46 years, Anne, and his eight children: Maureen, Kevin, James, Eileen, Kathleen, Deirdre, Kerry and Sean, as well as 14 grandchildren.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
