Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 55

TEMPO SECTION 5 CHICAGO TRIBUNE 5 FEBRUARY 6, 2002 WEDNESDAY Skilling brothers, separately, weather the media storm for that of his parents, who still live in the area. "I can understand interest in the story, but this isn't the time for me to do this," he said. "My parents this is enough of a strain for us. And we know so little about what's gone on here. That's the bottom line.

We are truly in the dark." So while Linda Lay, wife of Enron founder Kenneth Lay, makes the rounds of the morning news shows, tearfully pleading her husband's case and revealing that they lost a fortune when Enron stock tanked, the Skillings who also had investments in the company are keeping a low profile. "My folks are going on 78 years old. This is not what they needed to hit them at this point in their lives," Tom said. William Hageman 1 1 I I W' I i i Li "The only thing he has told us is Tom Skilling says of his brother, that he didn't do anything wrong, Jeffrey (above). "He is not a crook.

New York Times photo by Paul Hosefros he didn't do anything illegal," There are no winners in this." ilia heart is broken. can't leave his home, he is so embarrassed about this. Tom Skilling, discussing his brother Jeffrey joined Weight Watchers and I had lost 60 or 70." Two days after the reunion, back in Houston, Skilling announced his departure from Enron. And now just about everybody knows who he is, for all the wrong reasons. "His heart is broken" by the collapse of Enron, Tom Skilling says.

"He can't leave his home, he is so embarrassed about this. The only thing he has told us is that he didn't do anything wrong, he didn't do anything illegal." "He is not a crook," Tom says. "There are no winners in this." Tribune reporter Robert Manor contributed to this story. SKILLING: A brother talks about his brother CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 update over the school'spublic-address system back in junior high, he was already messing around with weather," Ebeling says), and did weather reports for two local radio stations, starting when he was 14. Jeff was usually in the background, say people who remember him.

"I think he kind of walked in the shadow of his older brother," says Ewing, who was on the student council with Jeff in their senior year. "He was really pretty quiet. He was very quick-witted, with a dry sense of humor. And a really good student he was also in the National Honor Society as a junior and senior He was just a typical kid." Middle class upbringing The Skilling family moved to Aurora when the boys were in junior high school. Tom Skilling describes a solidly middle-class upbringing in Pittsburgh, where he and his brother were born, early youth in New Jersey and the final move to Aurora.

Their father sold huge industrial valves, the type used in power plants. "We were not wealthy," Tom says. "We were middle class suburban folks who had good parents." And the brothers were, well, brothers. "I remember running around playing war, the two of us," Tom says. Tom says Jeff tended to be accident-prone as a child, a tendency that carried over into early adulthood.

"He was always hurting himself," Tom says. "We built a three-story tree house in the woods. He fell out of it and was hurt." Tom says his brother also broke a leg playing soccer and was in a cast for months. Another time he was seriously injured after running into a tree. The impact caused partial amnesia, and Jeff eventually required treatment at the Mayo Clinic.

The worst accident came when Jeff was in his late teens, Tom says. His brother, who was working on a job installing radio equipment, nearly lost his life when a 600-pound radio transmitter fell on him. "He was in a full-body cast for the next three quarters of a year," Tom says. "I used to feel so sorry for him." Beginnings at WLXT The two brothers worked together on a startup UHF television station in Aurora, WLXT-Ch. 60, which went on the air in 1968.

Again, it was Tom who was out front, with Jeff working behind the scenes. "I remember well the first night we went on the air," says Neal Ormond, who has been covering sports on radio in Aurora for 38 years. "I did sports, Tom did weather. We had Charlotte Reid, who had been a con-gresswoman and later an FCC commissioner and a number of politicians, Paul Simon and some others, help kick it off. "Opening night the families came down.

And I remember Jeff Skilling being there. He was one of those who immediately began hanging around the station, and he had the interest and the ability to help out on the technical end of things." "I must have been 17," Tom Skilling says of the early days at WLXT. "Jeff would have been 15 or 16. My brother and I built the -Octavio Roca, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE A WALK 10 It all comes down to who's by your pandora Lo UrakuiLimtlliahaam It was an intriguing idea for an interview: Sit down with the Skilling brothers over coffee sometime over the holidays (after Jeffrey had resigned from Enron and after the company had declared bankruptcy but before the scandal hit full force) and have them talk about how two kids from Aurora rose to the top of their respective professions. On one side of the table would be Jeff, who won a scholarship to Southern Methodist University, went to work for the prestigious consulting firm McKin-sey Co.

and, most famously, became president and CEO of Enron Corp. Across from him would be older brother Tom, who has become a Chicago icon as the WGN-Ch. 9 and Chicago Tribune meteorologist and who is recognized as one of the top people in his field in the United States. Two brothers, sons of an industrial valve salesman, would surely have some great stories to tell. But now they can't.

And won't. Enron has collapsed, and although Jeffrey Skilling left the company last August, a lot of fingers are pointing at him and a lot of questions are being asked. He's in seclusion in Houston, speaking through his attorneys. And Tom Skilling is trying to separate himself from the controversy involving his brother. "It's particularly awkward for me, because I am visible," he said.

"I'm trying to do a weather page and a television weather show on a newscast that will often include news about what is going on." After being tracked down by reporters while on vacation and while at a weather conference, Tom has found himself having to draw the line, for his sake and side. MARCUS CINEMA Oiuul Pi IWH11-I900 MERRILLVILLE 10 Mlinlliilllil 1947-1071 NORRIDGE noiiiiejii444-nuimi N0RTHBR0OK COURT 14 ailtkul IIU QUARRY CINEMAS 14 Hulli In WUt-HIM Mil RANDHURST 16 Ml PigiKtl47i444-FHMlKI RICE LAKE SO. OUaita Hit RIVER OAKS 1-6 Calntl cm (H.444 FIUH HII ROUND LAKE REACH 18 loiH Lata Baaci U7M4H3 SHOWPLACE 16 SOUTH BARRINGTON ioitl laniaiua l47i7iWJUIC STRATFORD SQUARE STREAMWOOD ilien.OOl STREETS OF WOODFIELD icliao 847444-fllM IF.27 WOODRIDGE olnl. W444.FIUI H41 Y0RKT0WN 18 Call theiUi oi tea dlroclonj atf tor showtimei. SLACKERS (R) 4:16 7:15 10 00 IAMSAM(PG-13) 3.45 6:45 9 50 KUNG POW (PG-13) 4 20 6 30 9 00 THE LORD OF THE RINGS (PG-13) 4:00 8:00 IN THE BEDROOM (R) 4 15 715 10:15 GOSFORD PARK (R) 4 40 7 45 THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (R) 4:10 7.00 9 30 OCEAN'S 11 lPG-13 4 50 7 30 10 10 1 BIRTHDAY GIRL (R) 5 00 BOO 10 30 THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (PG-13) 3 60 6 45 9 45 THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES (PG-13) 4 30 7 30 10 10 A WALK TO REMEMBER (PG) 4 45 7 45 10 00 A BEAUTIFUL MIND (PG-13) 4:15 715 10 15 BLACK HAWK DOWN (R) 3 40 7.30 10 05 ORANGE COUNTY (PG-13) 5 15 8 15 10 25 SNOW DOGS (PG) 4 00 6 30 9 00 j.u ii i mm mill all iii in i laiiliTI HIGHLAND PARK A A IT'S UbtfilStMiiiitlSt.

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"He was really into understanding everything he could about the station," Ormond says of Jeff. "Because he was so reliable, people gave him more and more responsibility. He didn't push himself on people; he volunteered to help." Ormond says that in those early days, "we were learning as we went." He tells of the station's decision to cover fast-pitch softball during the summer of 1969, a task made tougher by the fact that no one at WLXT had ever done any live broadcasts. "Jeff was one of our cameramen," Ormond recalls. "He wasn't particularly experienced in sports I don't think he participated in any but he knew the technical end of things.

I remember the first game, my brother was in the production truck, and he had to tell him what to get on camera. He didn't anticipate the play; he'd point the camera at the player who had just thrown the ball. But my brother told him what he needed to do, and he was determined to learn. And he got better." The Skillings' jobs at WLXT ended as did everyone else's when the station shut down without notice. "We all came down to work one day and there was a sign on the door saying the station had been closed," Ormond says.

"I don't think any one of us got our final pay." After graduating from high school in 1970, Tom went on to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he studied meteorology and journalism and worked at local TV and radio stations. He later worked as a weatherman in Jacksonville, and Milwaukee before joining WGN in 1978. Jeff, after his 1971 graduation from West Aurora, attended Southern Methodist University. One of his classmates was Mike Buttrey, a pal from West Aurora. "We were not close friends in high school, but strong acquaintances," Buttrey says.

"We found out we were both go- v. i 4. i iii at uvnl audi 0hMun MILWAT KtD AMPLE PARKING ARLINGTON HEIGHTS ing to go to SMU, so we got closer then. At SMU he was in a different fraternity, but we would see each other once a month or something like that and catch up on old times." The two lost touch after college but renewed their friendship three or four years ago, according to Buttrey, who is in commercial insurance in Dallas. He contacted Skilling through Enron, and the two got together for lunch.

Since then they have seen each other a couple of times a year. Reunion for class of 71 Early last year, Skilling spoke at the SMU business school, and Buttrey showed up. "It was about three days after the I got an invitation for the West Aurora Class of '71 reunion," he says. "I went up to him and we visited for a while, and I handed it to him, thinking there was no way he could make it because of his busy schedule. But he said, 'You know, this is something I really want to And he showed up." The two-day reunion, held at a local restaurant and at the home of a classmate, was last August.

From all accounts, Skilling had a good time. "We talked for a couple of hours, just laughing over old times," says Ewing. "And we talked about losing weight. He lost 50-some pounds he had THE ENDURANCE 5:30, MS DIAMOND MEN 1 10 Hi hil 1 Jik DARK BLUE WORLD 00, 7:20 hnliim' IMOHIIK'S I lb Oft V.Hiff.iicii 3 Hnnr parking In Adtdcrnt lot North (lank it nivpr.iv J4H-744 MONSTER'S BALL R)(12 00 2:30. 5 00, 7 40.

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