Jim Avila, an esteemed journalist who spent nearly a decade as a frontline reporter for CBS Chicago, passed away this week.
Avila died Wednesday at his home in San Diego, his family said. He was 69.
A graduate of Glenbard East High School in Lombard, Avila worked for KCBS radio in San Francisco, KPIX-TV CBS Bay Area, and Chicago’s ABC 7 before joining CBS Chicago. He was a high-profile member of the Channel 2 News team from 1984 until 1994.
At CBS Chicago, Avila covered a variety of stories around Chicago, and around the country and the world with a Chicago angle. He covered everything from politics and crime to the opening of Chicago venues such as the Hard Rock Café and the Limelight nightclub.
Jim Avila reporting for Channel 2 News, 1987.
CBS
Avila was live on the scene at Northwestern Memorial Hospital when Mayor Harold Washington died on Nov. 25, 1987. He was also one of the chief reporters, along with the late Mike Parker, on the still-unsolved murder of college student Tammy Zywicki in 1992.
In 1991, Avila reported on the Persian Gulf War from Tel Aviv and Saudi Arabia. He also reported for Channel 2 News on the TWA Flight 847 hijacking and the Mexico City earthquake in 1985, as well as the Lebanese and Nicaraguan civil wars, as noted in his official ABC News bio.
Of course, these assignments only scratch the surface of Avila’s work for CBS Chicago — working alongside icons such as Bill Kurtis, Walter Jacobson, and Lester Holt.
Jim Avila reporting for Channel 2 News, 1992.
CBS
From CBS Chicago, Avila moved on to work as an investigative reporter for KNBC-TV, NBC 4 in Los Angeles, where he was the principal reporter for the O.J. Simpson trial, ABC News noted. He then advanced to NBC News, working in the Chicago bureau and then as a national correspondent — covering the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan, ABC News noted.
Avila then joined ABC News as senior law and justice correspondent, covering a variety of high-profile trials. Avila covered the White House during the Obama administration from 2012 until 2016 for ABC News, the network noted.
In 2021, Avila left ABC News and went on to return to local news, joining San Diego ABC affiliate KGTV 10 as a senior investigative correspondent in 2023.
Avila won multiple Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Awards, and the Merriman Award from the White House Correspondents Association, his family noted.
Avila’s father, James Wesley Simon, was a vice president of both CBS News and Mutual Broadcasting, his family noted.
Avila is survived by his mother, Eve Simon; his sister, Karie Simon; his brother Tom Simon — formerly of Fox News and CNN and now of Williston Trending Topics; and his brother Jaie Avila, and investigative reporter for NBC affiliate WOAI in San Antonio. Avila is also survived by his children, Jamie, Jenny, and Evan.
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