Photo by Steven E. Nanton

By MARLA A. GOLDBERG
reporter/Springfield Union News

During his 25-year career as a newspaper photographer, Donald G. Fontaine often was called upon to cover tragic news events.

Monday, July 15, 2002, family, friends and co-workers of the Union-Newsand Sunday Republican photographer gathered to mourn his loss after his Harley-Davidson motorcycle collided with a truck late Sunday
driven by a Chicopee man who has been charged with drunken driving.

In an interview, David G. Fontaine of Belchertown, Fontaine’s younger brother, said Fontaine was “a free
spirited type of guy.”

“He lived his life the way he wanted to do it, always searching for different things in life.”

Donald Fontaine's Pulizer Prize-nomiated photo of an emergency medical technician tryint to resuscitate a child.

Fontaine won several photography awards, Union-News Photo Editor Dale Ruff said. The newspapers nominated Fontaine for a Pulitzer in 1980 for his photo of an emergency medical technician trying to resuscitate a child. More recently, Fontaine worked on teams of journalists who won awardsfrom the National Council on Crime and Delinquency in 1997 and 2000.

“Don Fontaine had a special place in his heart for police officers and firefighters in his more than 25 years as a photographer,” Executive Editor Wayne E. Phaneuf said. “His work consistently showed his respect for those two professions.”

Publisher Larry A. McDermott said Fontaine’s many friends at the newspapers are devastated over his death. “Our hearts ache at the
loss of Donnie. There is no tighter family unit than our photo staff, and they are devastated by this,” he said.

Springfield Police Sgt. Dennis M. O'Connor was among those in law enforcement who knew Fontaine. “He was a straight-shooter. There were no airs about him, just a good down-to-earth person,” O’Connor said.
Often wearing a leather jacket and boots, in the newsroom Fontaine was known as a Harley-Davidson fan with a wry sense of humor. “Donnie was the type of person that lived life to the fullest,” Ruff said. “Losing Donnie goes far beyond losing a colleague, we truly lost a good friend.”

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Joe Traver

By Joe Lippincott
Guest Columnist / reprinted from Summer 2001

Joe Traver, Buffalo, N.Y., freelance photojournalist and 1994 NPPA president, was found dead in his house June 19, 2001 of an apparent suicide. Traver, 48, had been charged several days earlier with sexual assault against a juvenile, according to The Associated Press and The Buffalo News. He denied the charge. During a raid on Traver’s house, a deputy sheriff was shot in the hand by another officer, The AP reported.

In a “farewell letter” via e-mail to friends, as well as during phone conversations after the arrest, Traver explained that he never could recover from the humiliation, expense, and ruin of his career, even if he proved his innocence.

Thecase is closed with his death. Traver died a legally innocent man, though troubling and perplexing questions remain that never can be answered.

That said, it is important to remember Joe Traver’s significant contributions to photojournalism--most especially to NPPA and to the success of the Northern Short Course.

I knew Joe for 28 years. We worked many significant events together, including multiple Olympics, Goodwill Games, World University Games, Super Bowls, national political conventions, NCAA basketball finals, Baseball Hall of Fame inductions, Grand Prix auto races at Watkins Glen, and so much more. He was the consummate professional who always got the job done, no matter the difficulties, with a quality, style, and attention to detail that was unique.

Traver's funeral in his hometown of Hudson, N.Y. was attended by many of the friends he had made over his
professional career - representatives of major magazines, picture agencies, wire services, and newspapers; associates from his managerial jobs at the Olympics and other major events; colleagues from the organizations to which he donated so much of his time, as well as men and women to whom he offered mentoring, encouragement, and professional opportunities. Many went on to be successful photojournalists or to pursue other careers.

When Joe's mother called me with the shocking news of his death, I felt the need to respond. So, with her permission to reprint: Mim, I just had to write this, and it’s for you:

He said it best in the last line of his goodbye letter to his friends, of which I am most proud and honored to be one: “Please remember me as the big guy with a smile and an open heart.” We certainly will.

Joe called me his mentor, his confidant. I called him my friend. He claimed he learned much from me in those early years of his professional life. I say that we learned from, even thrived on, each other's enthusiasm and passion for photojournalism. I was the cautious, careful one; he was the risk-taker, always testing the outermost limits of the rules and, more often than not, breaking them with a confidence, physical presence, and smile that defied challenge.

As the years passed, Joe became a master photojournalist, as well as an icon in photojournalism organizations. He was decisive, and had little time for people who weren’t. He was
a master organizer and congenial manipulator. Whenever he was in charge of something, it not only got done right, it got done with an enduring and memorable quality. Whether it was the Northern Short Course which he shepherded for 20 years, the 50th anniversary of NPPA and the convention in Washington, D.C., or coordinating photo coverage of the World University Games, the Goodwill Games, the Olympics, and so much more, he thoroughly enjoyed planning every minute detail of a complex project so it would be the best ever. And, with his touch, it always was.

He gave so much of himself to others. While many of the officers of photo organizations receive time off with pay from their duties to work for the common good, Joe was self-employed for the past two decades. He probably put more time and effort into photojournalism betterment than anyone, yet every minute that he donated was a minute of lost income. But money wasn't that important. He felt a sense of duty, a need to help others, and he derived great satisfaction from making things happen that would improve the craft of photojournalism and those who practice it.

It is truly amazing how his death has affected so many
of his peers – legions of admirers and perhaps even a few detractors--in the United States and all over the world.

A terrible emptiness lingers on.

Photojournalism truly has lost a giant of a man. A man who derived pleasure from making the impossible happen; who truly cared so much about other people; who nurtured countless starry-eyed young photojournalists to successful careers, and expected little more in return than a smile or some occasional help in mentoring others.

To you, my friend Joe Traver, goodbye. May you be at peace from your unfair worldly burdens in a place where you’ll undoubtedly be working harder than ever to make it better. And, hopefully, you’ll even find time to do what you truly love: “taking pictures.”

Joe Lippincott teaches photojournalism at Boston University and is the former photo editor at The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass.

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