John Lewis Siceloff 1953-2015

John Siceloff passed away at his home in Dutchess County, NY on March 6, 2015, under the care of hospice and surrounded by loving family. He was 61.

John led a life committed to solutions-oriented journalism and educational empowerment. His career spanned 5 continents, beginning with his work as a war correspondent reporting from the Middle East, Africa and Central America. He was bureau chief for CBS News in El Salvador during the height of that country's civil war and bureau chief for NBC News in Managua during the contra war. In the U.S., he worked as a producer and senior producer for ABC, NBC, and CBS before taking a position as senior executive producer to launch NOW on PBS with Bill Moyers, later hosted by David Brancaccio. His book Your America: Democracy's Local Heroes, co-written with Jason Maloney, featured Individuals profiled on NOW who were part of the 'geography of hope'.

In 2009 John founded Catch the Next (CTN), a non-profit education organization fostering college success and graduation for at-risk students. CTN has assisted thousands of students and currently has partnerships with community colleges in Texas where the program has increased completion and success rates by over 50%.

John executive produced the 2012 documentary feature Fixing the Future, which brought stories of innovative, green, and local jobs to convening events in 75 cities to engage residents of each community in a grassroots process of economic revitalization.

John was born and raised on St. Helena Island, S.C., where his parents, Courtney and Elizabeth Siceloff, ran the Penn Center. Founded in 1862 to teach reading, writing, and practical skills to newly freed slaves, in the 1950s and 1960s Penn was a center of community development and social justice, hosting retreats for leaders of SCLC and the civil rights movement. John's experiences of growing up in a family at the center of the violence and vision of the Movement formed the basis of his recently completed memoir, Lowcountry Blood. John served on the Board of Directors of Penn Center and was actively working to ensure its future.

For his television work, John received six national Emmys, the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award, the Peabody Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club for Best International Documentary, and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism. He was a graduate of Swarthmore College and held an MA in Communications from Stanford University.

He is survived by his beloved wife Birgit Siceloff, with whom he trekked in Bhutan, traversed Patagonian glaciers, and experienced every life joy and obstacle hand in hand; by his son Andrew Siceloff, a producer, director, and editor in New York City and a partner in his passion for media and education; by his sister Mary Siceloff of Savannah, GA who shares his Lowcountry childhood and love of literature, and numerous extended family, all of whom were profoundly influenced by his life.

Memorial services have not yet been announced. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Catch the Next, PO Box 856, New York, NY 10163, or online at http://catchthenext.org/donate/.