Remembering Lou Prato: Tributes to an RTDNA and RTDNA Foundation legend
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Prato family is asking those who wish to honor Lou’s life to donate to the RTDNA Foundation Lou and Carole Prato Sports Reporting Scholarship. You may do that here.
By Dan Shelley
RTDNA President and CEO
I’ll never forget the first occasion I spent time with Lou Prato, who died peacefully in his sleep last week at his home near State College, Pa. He was 87.
It was the early 1990s. I and a group of other RTDNA members, mostly local news directors from around the country, spent a snowy early spring weekend together at the Chicago O’Hare Hilton judging the national Edward R. Murrow Awards. Lou, then RTDNA treasurer, was in charge.
We had a lovely group dinner Friday night at a hotel restaurant, then spent all day Saturday working in teams of two, judging category after category to determine which entries deserved that year’s top distinctions in broadcast journalism.
On Sunday morning, we all gathered together to watch, and listen, to a handful of entries in categories where the initial judges couldn’t agree on a winner. If they couldn’t decide, the entire group would.
I don’t remember the category, and I don’t remember the television stations involved, but we watched two excellent entries and then had a discussion about which would win the Murrow. For some reason, at some point, the conversation got, shall we say, a bit heated. There were strong feelings about both finalists. It grew into a shouting match.
Then, suddenly, Lou took one of the video cassettes out of the VCR and threw it across the room with all his might. It shattered against the wall. Exploded, really. The room went silent. After a few uncomfortable moments, a red-faced Lou apologized. The apology was quickly accepted by the group and his skin tone returned to normal. The group then reached a decision and all parted as friends.
Many times when I would see or talk to Lou in the years after that, he’d joke about that time he threw a cassette at my head (even though my head hadn’t been his target) and we’d have a good laugh.
That was the Lou I remember. Passionate. Strong-headed. No glad suffering of “fools.” But he had a heart ten thousand times bigger than his occasional temper.
And that big, kind heart loved so much. His wife Carole and their large family, for sure. Journalism. Journalism students. Sports and sportswriting. His beloved Penn State and its athletics program, especially its football team. The lifelong friends he made while serving RTDNA and the RTDNA Foundation for more than 30 years, 20 of them as our association’s treasurer.
It was unfortunate that when Lou retired as RTDNA treasurer we couldn’t have the big celebration my predecessor, then-RTDNA President Barbara Cochran, had planned. His party was to be held at our annual conference in Nashville, which was supposed to start on Wednesday, September 12, 2001.
Instead, as all of us scrambled to find our way home, and to our newsrooms, the RTDNA staff and the few board members who couldn’t get out of Nashville quickly did have a small, understated recognition of Lou’s long and distinguished service. They announced the creation of the Lou and Carole Prato Sports Reporting Scholarship, which to this day awards money annually to a college student who exemplifies Lou's values of excellent journalism to cover sports.
Lou was also honored during his tenure with RTDNA’s Rob Downey Citation, named for the first executive secretary of RTDNA and recognizing exceptional service to the RTDNA board. He also received the Barney Oldfield Distinguished Service Award, created in honor of RTDNA Foundation founder Col. Barney Oldfield, USAF (Ret.), which goes annually to an individual who, through their own efforts, contributed to the growth and success of the foundation.
Lou was proud of being the longest-serving treasurer of RTDNA when he retired. But I know he was just as proud when his successor and dear friend Loren Tobia held that office for one year longer than he had until Loren retired in 2022. It was Loren who alerted us to Lou’s passing:
“What do you say when you have lost one of your dearest friends of over 40 years?” Tobia wrote. “Lou and I talked three days before he passed. The conversation was all that Lou loved. We talked about family, politics, sports, and a budding journalist who wants to be a sports reporter. Of course, we discussed the current state of Penn State athletics, and also religion and why he read the Bible every day. A special friend who will be missed.”
More of Lou’s contemporaries on our board sent us their remembrances as well.
Jeff Marks: “Lou was two things to me, the treasurer devoted to the health of the organization, and an unabashed Penn State fan. We agreed more often than we disagreed, but when we did disagree, fireworks could be seen (and heard). Lou loved his cigars, and I just stopped asking where he got them. Old-timers will know what I'm talking about. Lou gave a lot of himself to a generation of journalists at Medill. When a job candidate told me that she was a Medill graduate, I knew that I was talking to someone with real-world experience and fire in the belly. He and his kind are missed.”
Spence Kinard: “Lou enjoyed his cigars and his wine, both of which he knew I did not indulge. At any of our dinners Lou made a point of sitting next to me so he had access to my unconsumed glass of vino. The year I was president (later chair when we changed the position in 1986), Lou requested to share the two-bedroom "presidential suite" (we were an opulent crowd in those days) because he knew there would be an open bar there that he could have all to himself when everyone else was gone for the night. And then one Halloween night, Lou's favorite Penn State Nittany Lions came to Utah to play BYU the next day. I invited him to stay at my house, which he did. Unfortunately, my mother-in-law had passed away that week and I had to be with the family that night. I left Lou alone in the house. He asked if I minded him smoking his cigar outside on my front porch bench. I said not at all, but while he was there would he please hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters. So there sat the dark-haired, bearded Lou smoking a cigar under a single porch light hardly moving until the Halloween goblins ran up to ring the doorbell, and he would say, ‘Hello’ or, ‘Boo’ or, ‘What do you want?’ or something! The neighborhood has never been the same.”
Brian Trauring: “Lou called me at WLKY (it must have been around 1984) when he was managing Medill’s Washington program for Northwestern University students. He proposed using his student reporters to contribute content to our broadcasts. On reflection, I could have told Lou “This looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship” that would endure for more than 40 years as RTNDA board members and beyond. We loved having “Silly Uncle Lou” as part of the adventures and bond of our close group of friends. As you already know, Lou loved Penn State football. But you may not know he was a huge motor racing fan. Lou attended the Indianapolis 500 with fellow RTNDA board alums Bob Priddy, Rick Gevers and myself. We all loved the thrill of the high-speed-high stakes competition at the world’s largest single-day sporting event. Lou’s broad smile planted continuously across his face reflected the joy he felt at the track on Memorial Day weekend. I’ll be thinking of him this year as the green flag drops.”
Fred Young: "Lou and I met in the early sixties. We were young producers and part-time reporters for our respective Pittsburgh stations (WTAE and WIIC/WPXI). Our paths crossed while covering the acquisition of a steel company. We connected and our friendship grew. Lou eventually managed a newsroom at WDTN in Dayton, which became a Hearst station. He moved on to other media jobs and then on to academia. We continued our relationship, including so many years of good times and good work for RTDNA, Penn State's College of Communications, football games, tailgating, socializing with my wife Judi and Carole and so much more. Lou Prato was a good guy — a committed journalist — a good husband and Dad and his legacy to journalism and Penn State will continue for many years. May his memory be a blessing."
Lee Giles: “I remember the phone call from Lou and his saying, ‘I'm thinking about writing an article on you and would like to do an interview.’ And my swift response of, ‘About what, Lou?’ ‘About your longevity as WISH-TV news director,’ said Lou. ‘You are the longest-serving news director at one station in the country, aren't you?’ ‘I have no idea, Lou,’ I said, ‘but if you write that, we'll probably know in a hurry.’ Knowing full well Lou would never write anything he couldn't verify, the article was published in Electronic Media in August 1999. Personally, I thought it was a wonderful article! And it was only later that I realized how honored I should have been that Lou found time to write it when he was so inundated with multiple writing and producing chores about Penn State … although I do believe Lou earned a freelance writing fee for the one on me! (Probably Lou's financial acumen gleaned from his many years as unpaid RTNDA treasurer.) And when visitors see the framed article (by another RTNDA friend) hanging on my home office wall and ask what's that about, I say ‘Oh, that's just a story written by "the guy who made me famous."’ Actually, that article had little to do with the long friendship that Lou and I had over the years. My wife Diane and I even got the Penn State tour by Carole and Lou, including the famous ice cream stop, as we wandered close to the campus returning from an RV tour of Canada. When I read Rick Gevers' news about Lou's passing a couple of days ago, it was like my breath just left me. OH, NO! Too sudden, too soon, too sad. Lou and I weren't close companions with the geographical distance between us, even with Lou visiting family here (and the 500!), but I feel I've lost one of my best friends. I am so glad for the lasting memory of that friendship.”
Dave Busiek: “Nothing made Lou happier in our board travels around the country than to go into a local bookstore and find the book he wrote on Penn State football on the shelves. He was really proud of it. I was with him several times when this happened. He would light up.”
Lucy Himstedt: “Words fail me in adequately expressing why I loved this man. For many years I had the privilege of serving alongside Lou Prato on the boards of an international association and foundation for broadcast journalists — but more importantly, I had the privilege of his friendship. Lou could scare the bejesus out of you in a heated debate, but don’t be fooled — beneath it all, he had a heart of gold, especially for who he always lovingly called his ‘trophy wife,’ Carole. He often told me I was like a daughter to him, and in a twist of fate, I later met one of his real-life daughters, Lori Prato Keating. We discovered we were actually sisters — sorority sisters, a fact that delighted Lou. We shared so many adventures, and though years had passed since I last saw him and Carole, I always knew he was just a phone call away. Rest easy, dear friend — I know we’ll meet again.”