OBITUARY: John F. Sugg III

John F. Sugg III, a former reporter, columnist, senior editor and one-time part-owner of Creative Loafing, died of a stroke Sept. 11 in Blue Ridge, Ga. He was 79.

Sugg was born at the Biltmore Hotel in Miami on Dec. 16, 1946. He is survived by Catherine, his wife of 34 years; four of his five children, Amy, Adam, Robin, Robert, and five grandchildren.

After graduating from the University of Florida, he worked as an investigative reporter and editor for papers such as the Palm Beach Post, Miami Herald, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Tampa Tribune. He later worked as editor for The Weekly Planet (Creative Loafing in Tampa) before moving to Atlanta to work at Creative Loafing.

“John often used the power of the pen to help those who could not speak out,” Catherine said. “Since his passing, many have expressed love and appreciation for how John helped them. He never really retired and continued to use his considerable talents to help local organizations such as Feed Fannin and others. He was a member of the Mineral Lodge #483 Masons and the North Georgia Shriners Club. John’s happiest years have been the past 25 years in Fannin County.”

Sugg won many awards for his courageous journalism.

Ken Edelstein, who was editor at Creative Loafing when Sugg worked there, said, “John had a hell of a nose for news. He had a secret sauce to reach people at the top. He could reach the president of a company who would open up his soul.

“He was a happy warrior,” Edelstein said. “He was ebullient. People loved his personality and considered him a friend even if he cut them up.

“Yet he had a heart bigger than the shiny dome on the top of his head.”

An excellent example of his big heart came in Tampa when he and Catherine decided to adopt a child. They went to a gathering put on by an organization that presented children who needed to be adopted by a family.

“We discovered they had five children up for adoption from one family,” Catherine said. “John said anything worth doing was worth doing in excess.”

They enthusiastically adopted all five and then moved to Atlanta. Love became the centerpiece of their home life.

Scott Freeman worked with John at Creative Loafing and later became editor of Atlanta Magazine.

“I was senior editor when I worked with John from 2005-2008,” Freeman said, “I admired, and learned from, John's fighting spirit when we were both at Creative Loafing. He wasn't afraid of battle. He fought for journalistic integrity, the quest for the truth. He joyed in rabble-rousing, in sticking it to powers-that-be and exposing their dark edges. He especially loved giving the business to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ‘In Atlanta,’ he wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review, 'few people take the AJC, and even fewer take it seriously.’”

Sugg’s comments about the AJC were prescient.

“I live in Atlanta, where the Journal-Constitution has turned itself into a joke. As with most major dailies, it has become timid—afraid even to hire a metro columnist over anxiety that that person would have an independent base. Its coverage of the Bush administration and the Iraq war has been pathetic. It has withheld news that might offend Georgia’s white racists (as chronicled in the recent book Buried in Bitter Waters, by, incredibly, a Cox Washington reporter, Elliott Jaspin), and it gives many incompetent and corrupt black politicians a free pass because it’s afraid it will be called racist. With those sorts of wet-their-pants priorities, it’s not surprising that the AJC circulation has dwindled to a fraction of its peak. Now the editors, as elsewhere in the nation, are trying to con people with the assertion that the combined online and print readership is growing….

“It has a handful of great editorial writers, but since the paper is no longer capable of convening the community, it has forfeited its right to lead. Its news coverage is pathetic. That story is repeated in city after city. The national newspapers may survive, for a time, but the locals are on life support. Cause of death?

“Suicide.”

The AJC no longer has a print edition, has laid off many of its news employees and has a website that is notoriously hard to use. The paper calls itself “The substance and soul of the South” and charges up to $49 a year.

Freeman continued: “Before I knew John, I knew his reputation for his take-no-prisoners columns for the Loaf. In print, he saw the world in black and white, with few greys. But when I joined the Loaf and began to work with him, I saw a much different side. He loved the role of mentor, of the wise uncle, and of the peacemaker. He was opinionated and stubborn, but he also had a warm smile and brilliant sense of humor. 

“I think of John when I remember something that the late, great Col. Bruce Hampton once told me: ‘After this generation passes, there won’t be any more characters. Today’s culture no longer allows them.’ And Sugg was a character, a larger-than-life figure who relished being the journalistic bull in a China shop. He often surprised, but seldom disappointed.

“Sadly, there aren't journalists like him any longer.”

A memorial will be held for Sugg on Oct.17 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. at Enola Blue Ridge Weatherburn Tavern, 9265 Blue Ridge Drive, Blue Ridge, Ga.

“Please RSVP to Catherine CKSugg@aol.com no later than Oct. 7,” she said. “We will have an informal celebration, which will involve walking to a pond if weather permits. Wear comfortable shoes.” —CL—

Doug Monroe was a senior editor and columnist for Creative Loafing from 2004-2006, He now lives in Athens and writes a Substack newsletter called “Doug Monroe is Openly Old” (www.openlyold.substack.com).