Chuck Vallone

A giant in Racine photojournalism died Friday morning. Charles S. “Chuck” Vallone, 93, worked at The Journal Times from 1954-2005 as a staff photographer and Assistant Photo Editor. He was the consummate perfectionist as a photojournalist on assignment and in the darkroom. Paul W. Roberts, a fellow Journal Times staff photographer, wrote in a Facebook tribute, “I was thinking about him printing in the darkroom; he made any negative sing its best song as it hit the paper (saved my bacon more times than I could count)…a master photographer.”

Vallone was well known in Racine, but his influence in his profession was nationwide and statewide. He was active in both the National Press Photographers Association and Wisconsin News Photographers Association (WNPA). He won countless awards from his peers in both groups, and served on their boards and committees. He was awarded WNPA’s highest honor, the Robert H. Dumke Award, in 1981 for “Distinguished Contributions to Visual Communications.” In 2002 he won WNPA’s Fellowship Award “for his continuing volunteer efforts on behalf of photojournalists.”

More than a photojournalist he was a mentor and friend, who touched countless lives as he fulfilled thousands of assignments for the daily newspaper. Bill Lizdas, a colleague from 1974-1978, wrote, “He was the No 1 person in getting my career started…[you] can’t put a price on that. In 1970, after he spoke to the student newspaper photo staff at UW-Whitewater, he then helped me get hired (part-time) at the Racine Journal Journal-Times.  He had an astounding way of documenting life, not  just, ‘Here’s what it looks like,’  but also what it felt like. Showing us intimacy without invading privacy. I’m sure he helped the newspaper’s readers understand visually what was impossible to understand any other way…”