31-01-2025
Beloved KGET cameraman, dead at 70, made the job fun for far-from-home young reporters
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – A beloved former member of the Circle 17 family has passed.
Photojournalist Chuck Dennis, who retired six years ago, died Wednesday. He packed a lot of living into his 70 years: stuntman, radio deejay, emergency medical technician, rural fire chief. His was as diverse a professional portfolio as you'll find.
It was for his last decade in the working world that folks in Bakersfield knew him best – as a photojournalist here at the local NBC affiliate, KGET. Chuck Dennis – who lived in Missouri, Illinois, Arizona and Northern California before settling in Bakersfield – died at his home, just 70.
Reporters he worked with at KGET from 2010 to 2019 remember a man who could come off as pretty gruff at times – but who cared about them, and their shared mission.
Lori Lizarraga, who now co-hosts the NPR podcast Code Switch, was at KGET from November 2016 to December 2018. She was like many local television reporters, then and now. Recent college grads, new to the city, alone, perhaps yearning for some semblance of comfort and familiarity. She found it in Chuck Dennis, whom she called 'my Chunk.'
'It took me a while to figure out how to play with Chuck,' Lizarraga said, 'and then, eventually, once I figured it out, I never stopped bugging him. I know he doesn't just let anybody bother him or make him dance, but he would do it for me.'
It was very much the same for Kristin Price Davis, who was at KGET from January 2013 to January 2019. She is now the communications officer for Kern County Superior Court.
'Chuck was just one of a kind,' she said. 'I would always tease him that he was, like Grumpy Cat – you remember when Grumpy Cat was like a thing? Cuz that's the exterior that he had. Once you were able to crack that – and it wasn't that hard – he was the sweetest guy, and he would do anything for you.'
Kelsey Thomas Pizzi, another former reporter, had the same kind of relationship.
'Chuck was a legend,' she said. 'He was grumpy. He was a hard worker. And in my opinion he had the world's worst ponytail. I would always tease about it and I would always threaten to cut it. Really, Chuck was the photographer behind some of the biggest stories that you would see on TV every night in Kern County.'
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As chief photographer at KBAK, Steve Mills jostled alongside Chuck Dennis for years: There was admiration among rivals.
'He was an old timer, old school,' Mills said, 'and he told it how it was. You just didn't run into a lot of Chuck Dennises. He was one of a kind.'
Danny Freeman, who is now with CNN, would agree.
'Chuck was the photographer you wanted to work with,' Freeman said, 'and the man you wanted to be around. Gonna miss him a lot. I'm gonna miss listening to Queen with him.'
Seems just like yesterday that KGET was saying goodbye to Chuck Dennis.
'I haven't got anything to complain about,' he told colleagues on his last day on the job. 'Thank you all. This has been a ride.'
Now we say goodbye again to our friend and colleague, Chuck Dennis.
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