Elizabeth Duff Schogol, 62, Inquirer reporter
Back in 1972, the Inquirer lured Eugene L. Roberts Jr. from the New York Times to give its flagging newspaper a kick in the butt. He turned out to be the guy it needed, and over an 18-year period, the paper won 17 Pulitzer Prizes under his leadership. A vital member of the reporting team he put together was a young Northwestern University journalism grad named Elizabeth Duff. During her nine years on the paper, she covered a wide variety of stories, ranging from the energy crisis that had her traveling to Colorado, Montana and Wyoming, to the courts and cops, and including features, profiles and breaking news. She once posed as a pregnant woman to expose questionable practices at an abortion clinic.
Back in 1972, the Inquirer lured Eugene L. Roberts Jr. from the New York Times to give its flagging newspaper a kick in the butt. He turned out to be the guy it needed, and over an 18-year period, the paper won 17 Pulitzer Prizes under his leadership.
A vital member of the reporting team he put together was a young Northwestern University journalism grad named Elizabeth Duff. During her nine years on the paper, she covered a wide variety of stories, ranging from the energy crisis that had her traveling to Colorado, Montana and Wyoming, to the courts and cops, and including features, profiles and breaking news. She once posed as a pregnant woman to expose questionable practices at an abortion clinic.
"Elizabeth was tenacious, determined, and courageous," said William K. Marimow, the Inquirer's editor, who worked with her when they were both reporters.
Elizabeth Duff, who became Elizabeth Schogol after her marriage to fellow reporter Marc Schogol in 1975, died of pneumonia June 17. She was 62 and lived in Drexel Hill.
One of the most dramatic stories she worked on happened when she was no longer on the paper but hadn't lost her reporter's instincts. She happened to be nearby in 1990, when a plane carrying Sen. H. John Heinz collided with a helicopter over a schoolyard in Merion, killing him, two children on the ground and four other adults. She called the Inquirer from the scene and began unloading notes.
Elizabeth left the paper after her first child was born in 1979, but she wrote freelance articles for the Inquirer, Redbook and Working Mother magazines, and Milestones, a publication of the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging.
While at the Inquirer, Elizabeth and her husband both won Keystone Press awards for stories they wrote.
Elizabeth grew up with three sisters in Watseka, Ill. She interned at the Inquirer in the summer of 1971 while attending the Medill School of Journalism, at Northwestern University. One of her first assignments was to cover riots in Camden.
When she graduated, her photo appeared on the cover of Glamour magazine as one of the country's top-10 college graduates.
She worked briefly for the Miami Herald before joining the Inquirer.
Her husband died of leukemia in 2007. She is survived by a son, Jeff; two daughters, Katie and Carolyn; her father, John W. Duff; three sisters; and a granddaughter.