Reporter, Dick Johnson Is Dead

Longtime NBC 5 co-anchor and reporter Dick Johnson, whose career in Chicago television journalism spanned nearly 40 years, is dead, According to reports from his family. Dick Johnson died at the age 66 years old after a long battle with prolonged illness.

Dick, whose welcoming smile and kind disposition were as much hallmarks of his personality as his long-standing talent in news, most recently co-anchored NBC 5’s weekend evening newscasts and reported for the weekday 10 p.m. news.

Dick was being treated at a hospital in northern Michigan the last several days for complications related to a respiratory condition, according to his family. He leaves behind his wife and three grown children, as well as his newsroom family and so many in the journalism field who have learned from him.

NBC5’s Dick Johnson was the best kind of newsman. Smart, thorough, nimble when deadlines were crashing around him. No cliches. Just facts, fairness, and great writing. And he was funny! What a loss to all who knew him. But especially to his loving family.#DickJohnson

— Carol Marin (@CarolMarin) June 9, 2020
He moved to NBC 5 in the fall of 2002 to co-anchor NBC 5 News Today from Studio 5, Chicago’s first street-side studio, following 20 years as an anchor and reporter at ABC 7 Chicago.