Long-serving San Diego Photographer Charlie Sick Dies at 88

Charlie Sick, photographer and later photo director at The San Diego Union-Tribune since the 1940s, died June 11. He was 88.

Sick's award-winning news photography career began in the days of big black-and-white negatives and followed the growth of San Diego. His Union-Tribune obituary describes Sick as "quiet, humble and even-tempered," and allowing his staff "the freedom to do their best work.

"Everybody respected him greatly. He was a very effective leader," retired photo lab manager Phil McMahan told Union-Tribune staff writer Blanca Gonzalez. She quoted former staff photographer Jerry Rife saying Sick "saw his job as fostering creativity rather than imposing a bunch of rules."

Upon his 1987 retirement, Sick was the newspaper's longest-serving employee. He started as a circulation clerk in 1939 and became a copy boy before joining the Army Air Corps during World War II (he would be recalled to active duty as a pilot in the Korean War). Upon returning to San Diego, he trained as a photographer because there no copy clerk openings. He had taken photography courses at night school.

"We'll come to the point where we will take ... pictures electronically," he told the Union-Tribune the year he retired. "Editors will be able to call the pictures up on a screen and make their choice."