It's Studs Terkel, Not 'Turkel'

By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 28, 2013 10:00PM

Media critic Jim Romenesko was tipped to a typo located 103 stories above street level at the Tower Formerly Known as Sears. An exhibit in the Willis Tower Skydeck honoring famous Chicagoans that's been up for 14 years has the last name of Studs Terkel misspelled.

"T-U-R-K-E-L."

We're prone to misspellings ourselves, but that is a hell of a typo.

The Tribune got on the case and sent reporter Rachel Levy to the skydeck to see if visitors would notice the misspelling. Two women didn't, on first glance; one woman from Germany did and wondered if "Turkel" or "Terkel" (Studs' name is spelled correctly in the paragraph describing him) was correct.

Skydeck Chicago general manager Randy Stancik told Levy he was unaware of the typo until the Tribune contacted him, meaning there's a copy editor out there who wasn't thorough in 1999. Tribune columnist Rock Kogan, a longtime friend of Terkel, said Studs would have gotten a laugh out of it.