Lennie Ignelzi

 

Good evening, 919 Gang.

 

DON BARTLETTI writes:

We lost retired AP photographer Lenny Ignelzi. He passed on Friday, April 29, 2022 at an acute-care facility in Las Vegas.

In the picture below from just 6 months ago, he held court in an Encinitas bakery near his home with a pack of retired San Diego area photojournalism friends. Lenny is seated, third from the left. He was recovering well from a previous stroke and entertained all of us with true stories from his decades-long career as photo bureau chief in San Diego. He spoke noticeably slower than the good old days, but he brought them back with remarkable color and detail that had faded somewhat from my memory. Then, last week his wife Bobbi messaged John Gibbins that another stroke had taken a severe toll rendering him unable to speak, eat or walk.

Lennie had a personality that was bigger than life: if he wasn't a photojournalist he'd have been a shoo-in on the Sopranos, Good Fellas, or Taxi. Get the picture? A mild Lower East Side delivery, and a knack for surviving any deadline news or sports assignment.

He maneuvered through his award-winning career in high gear. I couldn't catch him. He was a world-class sports photographer who would shoot the play of the game, soup the film and transmit a wet print before I could get off the sidelines.

Early in my career at the U-T, I was assigned to a PGA golf match at Torrey Pines. I stopped in his office on the first floor for some advice and mentorship. I was not a good sports photographer but I figured a day walking around in a big, lush garden near the ocean with the Godfather of sports photographers couldn’t be all bad.

"Donny, you only need two lenses to shoot golf: an 80-200 zoom and a 400mm 2.8. Travel light 'cause you'll walk your ass off. Oh yeah, jam a 24mm in your pocket, but leave room for this cigar!” My lucky day. Out there on the course, I stuck close to Lennie because he knew exactly whom to follow and where to stand at the tee, fairway or green. And he told a million jokes between strokes.

So there we were, cigars and lenses in hand, squinting through the big lenses and focusing on a golfer lining up a chip out of a bunker a long, long ways from the hole. As expected, the ball rolled past the flag by a mile. Lenny quipped, "Missed again!” We laughed like the good fellows we'd become.

Thanks Brother Lennie; I got you archived in my head on this sad day.

L to R: Howard Lipin – San Diego Union-Tribune; John Gibbins - U-T; Don Bartletti (standing) - Los Angeles Times; Lenny Ignelzi - AP San Diego and Hayne Palmour IV - U-T.

 

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          REBER: Tonight we wish Thomas Neumann a Happy Birthday on May 1.

 

Jack J. Reber

P.O. Box 2239

Ramona, CA 92065-0938

United States

 

They faded away

 

          Good evening, 919 Gang. In his farewell address, General Douglas MacArthur quoted an old Army song: “Old soldiers never die--they just fade away.”

          I thought of that today as I realized how lonely you can be when people fade away.

          Tony was best man at our wedding. A few years ago he sold his antique shop in Portland, Maine, and he and his spouse moved to Florida. About a month ago I wrote to tell him about an Army friend who had died, and I asked him to write back so we could keep in touch. There has been no reply.

          Konrad is an Austrian living in Canada. We share an interest in stamps and we have communicated for 45 years. Last week I wrote him offering some Canadian items that are of no use to me. No answer.

          A fellow I teamed with at the U-T is in a memory care center. Another good U-T friend has Alzheimer’s to the point where he won’t communicating. I can think of four 919 Gang members whose email has gone silent – unusual for them.

          At my age, I have to expect losses like this, but it hurts to realize they are gone and I never had the chance to say good-bye.

 

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DAVID GADDIS SMITH writes:

Visited the Huntington Library in San Marino on Monday and the rose garden was in full bloom. The garden planners apparently had had some fun, placing a Marilyn Monroe rose bush in front of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy one (apparently Bobby has no rose named after him, just a mother named Rose). Nearby was the Betty White rose.

Anyway, saw the roses shortly before the Netflix movie "The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes,” came out, about her 1962 death and involvement with the Kennedy brothers. I don't have Netflix, but the documentary appears to have been generally panned.

          Another old death was in the news Friday. Tijuana's Zeta weekly reported that one of the imprisoned kidnappers of DEA agent Enrique Camarena, José Luis Gallardo Parra, had died of complications of renal disease at a Guadalajara hospital. Camarena was killed in 1985, half a year before I came to the Union. I wound up editing a lot of stories about his death. His son, Enrique Camarena Jr., is a San Diego County judge.

 

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ALAN MILLER writes:

          Appreciated Bob Hawkins’ perceptive post about staying in one's lane. Many media types have a penchant for pack journalism that gives the profession a bad name. Jerry Rife's respect among San Miguel residents there is well-deserved. I remember him as a very personable professional whose photos were first-rate. Godspeed to Jerry, Bob, and their wives in Mexico.

 

JERRY RIFE writes:

Wow!! Muchas gracias to my pal Bob Hawkins for linking me to La Parroquia in a heavenly simile. La Parroquia and I are joined again, visually speaking. It is just me and my sombrero in a photo by my 5 y/o next-door neighbor. San Miguel de Allende is a paradise for photographers and other artists. Jan and I are very grateful to have made a home there as well as in San Diego.

 

        

          REBER: I can’t swear this is true, but I recall hearing that Jerry wanders about with his camera on a strap and hanging at about belt level. Jerry can push the shutter release without raising the camera to his eye. His subjects don’t know he has taken their photo, and he gets wonderful candid shots that way.

 

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          REBER: We can’t close out the month without wishing Larry Ross and Marcus Stern Happy Birthdays on April 30.

 

Jack J. Reber

P.O. Box 2239

Ramona, CA 92065-0938

United States