Steve Lasker, pioneering photojournalist who captured iconic Our Lady of the Angels fire image, dies at 94
It is an image seared into the minds of generations of Chicagoans, the photo of firefighter Richard Scheidt, cradling the lifeless body of John Michael Jajkowski Jr., as he walked from the fiery devastation at Our Lady of the Angels School.
That photo was taken on Dec. 1, 1958, by Steve Lasker, a young Chicago American photographer, and it would appear in that paper, in Life magazine, and in hundreds of publications across the globe.
Lasker would have a pioneering, prolific and distinguished career, filling his 94 years of life with millions of compelling images. He died Wednesday, April 30, in home hospice care in Lincolnwood, where he and his wife, Fran, had lived since their marriage in 1965. It was the end of his long battle with bladder cancer.
'It wasn't the hardship one might imagine. He was a wonderful patient,' Fran said. 'And a wonderful man. He was such a mensch.'
The two had met when Lasker arrived at Lincoln Park Zoo to photograph its president, Marlin Perkins. Perkins was not there so Lasker spent time with his assistant. 'That was me,' Fran said. 'It was brutally hot and so the two of us spent three hours in Mr, Perkins' office, the only place that was air-conditioned, just talking. He asked me out and we had drinks the next night.'
They were married three months later and would have three children, daughter Stacey and sons Scott and David. 'He was a wonderful husband and a great dad. We always said that for him it was the job that came first, children second and me third,' said Fran, with a chuckle.
Lasker came to photography early. His parents owned and operated a dry cleaning store on the North Side before relocating south. When he was 13 years old he was shooting photos of World War II aircraft at Midway Airport. As a student at Hyde Park High School he shot for the school paper and also for the neighborhood's Hyde Park Herald.
He was a frequent visitor to local firehouses, and the firefighters grew fond of him. They taught him to play poker and would often let him ride along and take pictures on emergency calls, such as the one that occurred on May 25, 1950, when a gasoline truck crashed into a streetcar, bursting into flames and killing 34 people.
Lasker was the first photographer on the scene and his photos were purchased by and displayed in Life Magazine and on television's Channel 5.
So impressed were the bosses at the television station that they formally began Lasker's career by hiring him to shoot stills for newscasts. After five years with the WMAQ, he was hired as a photographer at the Chicago American, and only months later was the first photographer to arrive at the Our Lady of the Angels fire on the West Side.
He had been on his way to an assignment that day when he heard a call come over a radio tuned to the police frequency: 'They're jumping out the windows!' He recalled what he saw at the school, talking to the Tribune in 2008: 'Mayhem was going on and they started pulling kids out of there left and right. To this day I still have dreams about that horrible scene.'
Willaim Vendetta / Chicago Tribune
Parents watch as firefighters battle a fire and pull victims out of the smoldering Our Lady of the Angels grade school building Dec. 1, 1958, in Chicago.
But he and the photo would be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, launching a career that would earn him nearly 40 awards for his work.
In 1970, he moved to WBBM-Channel 2 and became a news and documentary cameraman. Over the next quarter century, he would be known as 'the man with the golden eye' as he travelled the world and the city, working on hundreds of stories and documentaries, many in collaboration with esteemed producer Scott Craig. He also worked often with anchorman and reporter Bill Kurtis.
''He led our stellar stable of photo masters. Quiet. Respectful. A privilege to know. And he really did have a 'golden eye'' Kurtis said. 'But that's just part of what makes a great photographer. The eye is connected to the brain and an uncanny third eye that is able to anticipate what's going to happen before it happens. It's like Steve was waiting for the great shot. That always came.'
Kurtis told a story: 'We were in Horicon Marsh north of Milwaukee to cover the migration of thousands of Canada geese. I saw some hunters in a nearby rowboat. I said to Steve, 'Wouldn't it be great to get a shot of them in action?' When I turned back to Steve he was pointing the camera to the sky above the hunters as if that was where the birds would fly over. Before I could say a thing, a shot went off and a bird was falling from the sky and Steve was following it all the way to the water. He won an Emmy for that one.'
Lasker retired in 1995 but kept shooting. If there was an event — a block party or parade — in or around Lincolnwood, Lasker was there with his camera, later supplying photos to organizations or local publications. He also served as a member of the suburb's Fire and Police Commission.
In addition to his wife and children he is survived by a grandchild.
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