The "My Yearbook Photographer Was The Son Of A Photographic Legend" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Talking to a few friends about a young man who was on my high school yearbook staff years ago.  I became the adviser to the yearbook in the late 1960s and a student by the name of "Chip" Errigo was one of my staff photographers.  Little did I know at the time that his father was a world renowned professional photographer.  

Frank S. Errigo

As I opened the morning newspaper a few days ago I saw the name of Frank S. Errigo at the top of a three column obituary.  After reading the entire obituary I finally realized that the young boy who I got to know as "Chip" was actually the son of Frank S. Errigo.  Frank died due to a brief bout with the flu at the age of 97.  At first I wondered if the Frank "Chip" Errigo who I knew was a relative, but then I checked the school records and realized I had Frank's son on my yearbook staff.  A few highlights of the deceased Mr. Errigo life should give you an idea as to just how influential this person was during his lifetime.

• He attended Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1940 at the age of 20.
• He served in the European Theatre as a WWII combat photographer who followed General Patton across Sicily and participated in the Landing at Anzio, the Battle of Monte Cassino and the Liberation of Rome.  
• Mr. Errigo was a photo-journalist from 1941 to 2000 and was one of the two most respected and prolific color photographers of WWII.  
• His purchased his first camera, a 35mm used Leica, in 1936 at the age of 16.  Along with the camera he purchased developing supplies and a book that taught him the basics of his craft.  Two years after he was a skilled amateur photographer with a remarkable eye for light and composition. 
• Just after his 20th birthday he traveled to nearby Harrisburg, PA to tell an Army recruiter of his desire to shoot photographs.  He was enrolled with 22 other photographers, all professional, in the Army War Photo School in Washington D.C.  It was at this point that he was introduced to medium and large format cameras as well as another young photographer by the name of Ardean Miller III who had worked for Eastman Kodak before the war.  
• He graduated at the top of his class in 1941 and was assigned the rank of Technical Sergeant.  Shortly he was shooting self-directed publicity assignments for the Pentagon.  From 1941 to 1945 he traveled the country shooting color promotional photographs on his 4x5 Graflex, color photos of the same scene with his 8x10 Deardorff camera and in color on his trusty Leica of young GIs preparing for war in combat.  He then would do it all over again in black and white just to be sure he had it right. 
• He studied 16mm cinematography under Darryl F. Zanuck.
• During the next three years he distinguished himself while shooting Kodachrome rated at ASA 8.  He took vivid images for posters of GIs which are considered some of the most remarkable images of the 1940's ever made.  Over 600 of these images survive today.  
• In 1943 Mr. Errigo was given an assignment to lead a color team which went to Casablanca, Algiers, Caserta, Sicily and then to Rome.  He earned 4 battle stars for his work.  He carried his 8x10 Deardorff and tripod through the surf under fire at Anzio.  
• He, along with his friend Ardean, who was assigned to General Eisenhower in England, Germany and France, sent back photographs to the USA that were posted in National Geographic, Collier's, Liberty, Victory and Saturday Evening Post to name a few.  
• Following the Liberation of Rome in June of 1944, Errigo had a private audience with Pope Pius XII.  At the time he was 24 years old and proceeded to take the first color images of a Pontiff.
• Shortly after the war ended he was the staff photographer for President Harry Truman from 1945 to 1952.  
• He joined the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1952 where he had the chance to take photos of Emmett Kelly and the Ringling Brothers clowns, Roy Rogers and Trigger, Joe DiMaggio's Yankees vs. Connie Mack's Athletics and Rin Tin Tin.
• He used a strobe light to take a photo of an ice hockey puck so he could "freeze" it in midair.  The first person ever to do such a feat.
• He worked at Armstrong Cork (Armstrong Industries) for 30 years pioneering breakthroughs in room set photography.
• In 1994 President Bill Clinton asked Frank Errigo to accompany him to Anzio to take photographs of the ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Liberation fo Rome and the landing at Anzio. 

Book by Frank S. Errigo

What I have just listed is only part of his obituary.  Over half a column was devoted to publications where you could see his work as well as half a column of awards he won in his lifetime.  At his death he was a member of the Press Photographer's Association, a member of St. John Neumann Parish in Manheim Township, Lancaster County, a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus and a member of the Italian Cultural Society of Lancaster.  And...I had the honor of having his son Frank "Chip" Errigo, Jr. as a photographer for my yearbook staff.  Small world, isn't it.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.