He served in the United States Army from 1943 to 1946 and then worked as a journalist from 1954 to 1979, owning a chain of weekly community newspapers in the Chicago area including the South End Citizen.

[2] In 1983 he joined with 7 other Congressional Representatives to sponsor a resolution to impeach Ronald Reagan over his sudden and unexpected invasion of Grenada.

The House Ethics Committee decided that the events did indeed occur,[5] but it did not take disciplinary action only because Savage wrote a letter of apology.

"[10] In one of his final acts as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds, excavation and construction at the site of the African Burial Ground in New York City was temporarily halted in 1992, pending further evaluation by the General Services Administration, after Savage was able to leverage his reputation as a national political figure to bring attention to the potential importance of the site.

On October 29, 2015, Gus was discharged from the hospital after some minor issues, and placed into the care of his son Thomas Savage.