lit a candle 18 Sept 2026
Chick was a great mentor. He kindly, patiently, worked with me in about 1976, 77. I taught photojournalism at Northern Virginia Community College and I was a stringer for the Northern Virginia Sun. I got a few assignments from AP and the Washington Post. He ruthlessly but also kindly reviewed my portfolio. He encouraged my dreams. He opened doors to contacts. The White House Press Corps were my heroes. I lived for the Flying Short Course. In those years, I had the best job I ever had. I thought of Chick often over the years and wish I had kept in touch. Especially since I wound up in Santa Cruz, not too far away, for the last 40 years. Many many thanks to Yvonne for sharing Chick with so many.
Their story
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…
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. His hobby, an internal AP profile once noted, was writing and photographing stories as a unit.
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 KTAR, Click2Houston and WPXI carried the same account. Published reports did not state an exact 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.
Biography adapted from Associated Press obituary by Michael Weissenstein (carried by WTOP, ClickOrlando/Click2Houston, KTAR, WPXI and other affiliates); family remembrances quoted therein; Sharpsteen Museum exhibit notes.
In their own words
“I had the chance to run around the world taking pictures of a group of pretty interesting people. I was getting to witness history.”
Harrity, quoted in his family's obituary via AP
“Chick was an amazing photographer. We all walked by this homeless boy near a woman selling cigarettes, but Chick saw the photo.”
Retired AP photographer Nick Ut, on Harrity's Saigon child photograph
“Chick was not only a top-notch shooter but outstanding at getting along with everyone in a situation that he was new to.”
Retired AP photographer Neal Ulevich
“It's been a wonderful ride.”
Line Yvonne Henry said would have been her husband's summary, per AP
“He loved well. He was well loved.”
Family obituary closing, via AP
Yes. The clarity of it. He was there.