Ray Long speaks in Winchester
By Jessica Brown
Acclaimed investigative journalist Ray Long paid a visit to his hometown when he spoke in Winchester last month.
More than 60 people gathered on Friday, July 17 at the Old School Museum there. The audience was eager to hear Long speak about his impressive career and spending a big part of it in Chicago.
Long is no stranger to Winchester or to the building that houses the Old School Museum where he gave the presentation. He was a student in that building while it served as a public elementary school until 1958. His father, Scott Long, was a Winchester native; he served as the principal of the elementary school at that time and went on to become assistant superintendent of the Scott-Morgan Community Unit School District.
Ray Long graduated from Winchester High School in 1976. Long shared that he attended Eastern Illinois University for the first two years of college, but then transferred to Sangamon State University, which is now called the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS). It was there that he finished the education that brought him a career that would span decades.
Within his talk, Long shared that his interest was piqued for investigative journalism during a public affairs program he participated in while at UIS.
“I got hooked on it when I was covering the legislature through an internship at the statehouse,” he shared, adding that he embraced the idea of that competitive area of journalism.
After gaining experience at the Illinois State Capitol, he filled many roles in regional newspaper reporting for the Alton Telegraph and Peoria Journal Star. In time, he relocated to a personally hard-fought reporting position at the Chicago Sun-Times. “I was persistent,” he remembered.
In the mid-1990s, Long became head of the Springfield bureau for the Associated Press (AP).
His wife, Peggy Boyer Long, accepted a position as executive editor for Illinois Issues, a public affairs magazine that focused on Illinois state government, politics and policy. It was published by UI Press, which is affiliated with UIS.
In under five years, Ray Long took on a role he would fill for the rest of his enduring career; he became an investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune. He shared that he did so much work on investigations for the AP bureau in Springfield, it was only fitting.
“I figured, I’ve done a lot of investigating, so why not make it permanent?” declared Long.
He did just that, and with help from a team of other reporters at the Chicago Tribune, Long uncovered stories outside of his usual writing comfort zone. Together with other journalists there, he helped to investigate and report on far-reaching issues of public interest, some even involving those in high offices.
Long retired in 2025 from the Chicago Tribune and resides in Chicago with his wife.
His long list of accomplishments includes being a twice nominated Pulitzer Prize finalist, being named 2026 Illinoisan of the Year by the Illinois News Broadcasters Association and receiving a 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award from Reform for Illinois, which honored him for his decades of coverage tracking government corruption and state politics in Illinois.
He is also an author. In 2022, his book, “The House That Madigan Built: The Record Run of Illinois’ Velvet Hammer,” was published. It can be purchased in stores and online from the UI Press website at press.uiillinois.edu.
