Tom Korologos - Utah power broker, journalist

Tom Chris Korologos, advisor to presidents and a former United States Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, died July 26, 2024, from heart complications at his Washington, D.C. home. He was 91.

The son of immigrant parents from Greece, Korologos parlayed his political expertise to become a prominent fixture in the Washington, D.C., political landscape for more than 60 years. He was often referred to as the “101st Senator” on Capitol Hill.

Korologos earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Utah and his M.S. Degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He served as a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force in 1956-57.

Earlier in his career Korologos was a journalist with The New York Herald Tribune, The Long Island Press, the Associated Press and The Salt Lake Tribune. As a sports reporter in 1960 at the Tribune, he wrote the phrase “The Greatest Snow on Earth,” which later became Utah’s signature marketing slogan.

After starting in politics in 1962 as press secretary and assistant to Sen. Wallace F. Bennett, R-Utah, Korologos went on to serve for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Korologos helped manage nearly 300 U.S. Senate confirmations for the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, including aiding nominees Alexander Haig, Henry Kissinger and Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Among his many political positions, Korologos also served as ambassador to Belgium from 2004 to 2007. His first wife, Joy Goff, died in 1997. He later married former Labor Secretary Ann McLaughlin in 2000. She died in 2022.