"Tedd O'Connell was a public servant for about three hours last week when one reporter's phone call helped convince him that he was in the wrong line of work," Fred Milverstedt writes of the local news anchor-turned-coordinator of the Alliance for a Drug-Free Wisconsin. Peppered by a reporter's questions about his 11-year-old DWI conviction and his rep "as a wild and crazy party guy who loved a good time," O'Connell decided to submit his resignation letter to Gov. Thompson. "I had this feeling of impotence," he confides. I was very naive. For a guy who's been around as much as I have, to think that possibly my '70s personality did not fit my '90s position never really entered my mind." O'Connell goes on to become news director at TV stations in Iowa, Montana and elsewhere before settling in Green Bay. "I may be remembered as 'the guy who blew the state job, but I really don't think so. I would prefer to think my colleagues will say, 'He raised the level of TV journalism in this market a little bit.'" They do indeed, showering him with praise upon learning O'Connell had lost his battle with cancer last August, at 69.
A wild and crazy guy
From the Isthmus archives, Feb. 3, 1989