Charles "Chick" Harrity

Charles "Chick" Harrity was an American photojournalist whose camera recorded the Vietnam War, domestic protest, and eight sitting U.S. presidents for The Associated Press and U.S. News & World Report. Raised in Reading, Pennsylvania, he picked up a camera after an eighth-grade teacher urged him to try photography, a push his wife of 51 years, Yvonne Henry, later called the start of a lifelong journey documenting the world around him. He began newspaper work in Reading in 1956, served in the Air National Guard, and attended Kent State University before a long wire-service and magazine career.

Harrity spent 26 years at the Associated Press, including 13 years in the Washington bureau, then became chief photographer at U.S. News & World Report. As a White House press corps member for 33 years he covered presidents from Lyndon B. Johnson through George W. Bush. On 9 August 1974 he made one of the era's defining images: a tearful Richard Nixon bidding farewell to White House staff after resigning the presidency. In Vietnam, covering the aftermath of the Paris Peace Accords, he photographed a baby girl lying in a cardboard box beside her brother on a Saigon street, a frame colleagues said others had walked past. Decades later he reunited with that child, Nhanny Heil, at a White House News Photographers Association event with President George W. Bush looking on.

Peers remembered craft and temperament together. Nick Ut called him an amazing photographer who saw pictures others missed. Neal Ulevich praised not only his shooting but his gift for getting along with people in unfamiliar situations. Henry said he carried a fantastic sense of humor into every part of life and always looked for something funny. Harrity himself summed up the work simply: he had the chance to run around the world taking pictures of interesting people and to witness history.

He retired from U.S. News on April Fool's Day 2001 and moved to northern California with Henry. There he contributed to the Calistoga Tribune, coached local photographers, and joined arts projects, including a Sharpsteen Museum retrospective of his and Henry's work. Career honors included the Associated Press Managing Editors award for excellence in photography, the National Press Photographers Association's Joseph Sprague Memorial Award, the Leica Medal of Excellence for photojournalism, White House News Photographers Association photographer of the year, and a WHNPA lifetime achievement award.

Harrity died in 2026 at the age of 87. The Associated Press reported his death on 15 September 2026; affiliates including WTOP, Capital Gazette, KTAR and WRAL carried the same account. A Sunday TODAY segment on 20 September 2026 remembered his career. Published reports did not state an exact calendar day or cause of death. He is survived by Yvonne Henry and by what his family called interesting, amusing and treasured family and friends. Their obituary closed: he loved well; he was well loved. Asked how he might have put it, Henry offered his line: it has been a wonderful ride.