Bill Kaczor

William Stanley “Bill” Kaczor was born in Gary, Ind., but raised in Chicago, mostly on the southwest side near Midway Airport. He began his journalistic life at Lindblom High School, where he was sports editor and then editor-in-chief of the school newspaper. Kaczor (Kay-zor) earned a bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in journalism from Eastern Illinois University in 1968. While in college, he was a reporter and editor with the campus newspaper and also worked at two local dailies, the Mattoon Journal-Gazette and Coles County Daily Times. Bill then joined the Air Force during the Vietnam War. He trained at Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Ill., and then was sent to the Florida Panhandle as an F-4 Phantom II flight simulator specialist with the 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base. While at Eglin, he moonlighted at the Playground (now Northwest Florida) Daily News in Fort Walton Beach and Pensacola News Journal. He then earned a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, including a quarter spent in Washington, D..C, covering the U.S. Supreme Court for a student-run news service. Kaczor then returned to the Panhandle to cover city and county government for the Pensacola News Journal in 1974-75. He then joined Gannett News Service in Tallahassee, covering state government including the Florida Legislature. The Associated Press hired Kaczor in 1980 in Tallahassee. He continued state government coverage for AP as well as Florida State University sports as coach Bobby Bowden made FSU into a football powerhouse. Bill became AP’s Pensacola correspondent in 1984, while still pulling temporary duty in Tallahassee during legislative sessions and other occasions including FSU football games. In Pensacola for 21 years, he was responsible for covering most of the Panhandle. That included anti-abortion violence and other sensational crimes, multiple military bases, hurricanes, shark attacks, politics, sports, archeological discoveries and civil rights. Kaczor returned to Tallahassee fulltime in 2005 and retired from AP in 2013 after 33 years with the news service, all in the Panhandle. He lives in Gulf Breeze with his wife, Judy, a retired teacher. They met in college and were married in 1968. Their daughter, Anna Rose Stanfill, is a social worker/mental health therapist. She lives in Pensacola with her husband, Mike Stanfill, originally from Niceville.