John Mongillo, Jr.

He lived life on his own terms. May he rest in peace

I learned of John's passing Monday morning and I was dumbfounded.


I had seen John and his son John at a recent retirement event for a Wtnh videographer and he was quintessential John. Holding court and telling stories about Connecticut news media from the most inside of insider perspectives. He had mentored half of the last generation journalists in the state and knew what he was talking about. Love him or not John was connected as it got and a legend among television and newspaper editor and reporters who worked in Connecticut. I told him we wanted to have him and his wife Marlene out to dinner soon and he suggested we do it over at the condo where we could break "that homemade bread you make and eat real cajun" - John remembering my penchant for for dabbling in the kitchen. Schedules being what they're we had yet to get around to that dinner date but I thought about him at least each week and how i needed to call and get them over.

Now he's gone.

For those in the business to young to remember John, he was the ultimate old school journalist. His sources in the police and fire departments in New Haven and the state of Connecticut were unparalleled. From the late sixties through the the turn of the century he was always the first journalist on the scene of a breaking news story. After 2000 he would still be the first person to call the news desk when something big was going on.

Conversely, he was a trendsetter in what we would call the "new media" environment. John was also the first mobile journalist I knew. A quarter of a century ago he carried both a video camera and a still camera in his car shooting both for various news outlets across the state.

He was all about "news".

He will be missed.