Longtime Bond Buyer reporter Yvette Shields dies

Yvette Christine Shields, longtime Bond Buyer reporter who spent decades building a stellar career as one of Chicago’s finest and well-known financial reporters with a national reputation in the public finance industry, died unexpectedly this week. She was 57.

Shields died early Wednesday at a Chicago hospital after a brief illness.

“Yvette was everything a reporter should be — perpetually curious, tenacious, whip smart, and unafraid to ask the tough questions,” said Mike Scarchilli, editor in chief of The Bond Buyer. “More importantly, she was a wonderful person, both personally and professionally, beloved by colleagues and industry sources alike. She was the lifeblood of our newsroom, the de facto captain of our reporting team. Yvette is truly irreplaceable, and she will be sorely missed.”

Shields was born, raised and educated in Chicago and its suburbs. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Columbia College Chicago and began her reporting career at the storied City News Bureau of Chicago, where she met many of her lifelong friends and sources.

She joined the Bond Buyer in 1997, where she led Midwest coverage and over a nearly 26-year career steadfastly built an exemplary body of work that reflected her ethics of hard work and fair, thoughtful treatment of sources and subjects.

Her prolific output and scores of sources left an influential mark on the public finance industry in the Midwest and across the country. Her warm and engaging personality and willingness to share her knowledge made her a popular and well-known figure among colleagues, media and market participants alike.

Before joining the Bond Buyer, Shields worked as an assistant on a Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods for Harvard University’s School of Public Health. She freelanced for the Chicago Tribune from 1990-1995 and worked as a reporter for the City News Bureau from 1988-1993.

She is survived by her children, Wesley Alwin and Connor Shields Randell, her mother Inez Keller, brother Richard John Shields, Wesley’s father and good friend Scott Alwin and his brother Martin Alwin, stepsisters Kelly Fleming and Denise O’Connor, nieces Zash Fleming and Crystal O’Connor, nephew Walter O’Connor, cousin Richard Owens, aunt Christine Owens and stepfather Pete Keller. She was preceded in death by her father Thomas Shields and stepmother Barbara Ann Shields.

Visitation will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday at Gibbons Funeral Home, 5917 W. Irving Park Road in Chicago.

More details to follow.