Santa Claus says “Hello from the North Pole” to Jason Pratt, 4, via a video conference at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, December 13, 2011. In reality Santa was holed up in a hospital conference room. Ryan Mathus, left, a systems engineer with Cisco Systems Inc., was a member of the team that wheeled the portable video-link setup into young patients’ rooms who would have had difficulty being transported from their rooms to visit Santa. Registered nurse Shannon Jackson is at right.(Janet Jensen/Staff photographer)

Special thanks to Casey Madison.

Kathie and son Wyatt Pritchard of Auburn were some of the best-dressed among thousands runners in the 17th annual Norpoint Turkey Trot in Northeast Tacoma, November 24, 2011. It included a 5k run, a two-mile run/walk, and a kid’s trot.

Bruce Kellman, longtime TNT photographer, dies at 66

By Craig Sailor
Staff writer

Bruce Kellman, who spent 42 years as a staff photographer for The News Tribune, died Monday. He was 66.
Kellman shot photos of everything from soldiers shipping out to Vietnam to the construction of the Tacoma Dome.
He retired from the newspaper in 2007 after being diagnosed with bronchiectasis, a rare disease that destroys the airways. He received a double lung transplant in 2010. He died at home, surrounded by family members.
Daughter Elizabeth Fontanilla said she’ll miss her father’s wit and sense of humor and the good advice family and co-workers sought from him – as well as his fatherly support. “He would back you up even if you were wrong.”
Kellman was born April 17, 1945, in Sycamore, Ill., and moved with his family to Selah, Wash., when he was in high school. He bought his first camera at age 9 from lawn mowing proceeds and got his first job photographing a wedding for a commercial studio in Yakima when he was 15. With that money, “He bought a car even though he wasn’t old enough to drive,” Fontanilla said. “He would have his sister drive him around.”
Kellman spent his last two years of college at the University of Puget Sound where he was yearbook photographer, graduating in 1967. During that time he started work at the Tribune and settled in Tacoma with wife Joyce to raise daughters Elizabeth and Emily and son David.
After retirement Kellman spent time with his family, entertaining his six grandchildren with his backyard railroad. It was a 10-year work in progress, his family said.
“He tinkered with it everyday, building track and landscaping it,” Fontanilla said. She said he also enjoyed traveling with his family as much as he could while coping with his illness.
Fellow Tribune photographer and friend Russ Carmack credits Kellman for Carmack’s long career at the newspaper. Kellman urged Carmack to apply at the newspaper after Carmack left the Navy. “It was his intervention in my life that made this career possible.” Later, Kellman was best man at Carmack’s wedding.
“He had this calming way about him. His style was he just stood back and watched. He liked to get the moment that was relevant to the story,” Carmack said.
Kellman had a love for shooting football. He was on the sidelines most every Saturday and Sunday covering college and professional teams. He traveled with the Huskies and Cougars to their Rose Bowl appearances and to Detroit to shoot the Seahawks in the Super Bowl.
Tribune photo editor Jeremy Harrison said he was impressed with Kellman’s zeal in covering football late in his career. “That takes a lot of energy and high stamina.”
Harrison also remembers Kellman’s consistently professional manner. When Harrison called Kellman to cover a breaking crime story Kellman asked if he could shave first. “I said ‘no.’ Then he got the key shot of the arrest and went home and shaved before coming in,” Harrison said.
Fellow Tribune photographer Peter Haley grew up seeing Kellman’s photos in the paper. Later, when the two worked together, they would discuss photo techniques. On Tuesday Haley recalled something Kellman told him years ago: “When the shutter is open it’s like I hear music.”
Craig Sailor: 253-597-8541
craig.sailor@thenewstribune.com
A memorial service for Bruce Kellman will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 26 at Fircrest United Methodist Church, 1018 Columbia Ave., Fircrest.

Roger Hamel (left) and Richard Roy assemble the head of an African bull elephant that they have been working on at Roger’s Northwest Taxidermy in Lakewood. The animal is estimated to have been over 50 years old when it was legally shot in Zimbabwe by a resident of this area. The skin of the whole animal was dried and shipped back for mounting.

U.S. Army Spc. Patrick Intorre, right, and Janai Roberts kiss directly following their wedding ceremony while Shanna McMahon, left, and Zach Braun offer protection from the rain, in front of the W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory at Wright Park in Tacoma, October 11, 2011. The couple selected Tuesday to wed since they consider eleven their lucky number. Pierce County District Court Judge Pat O’Malley, who officiated their marriage, selected the location after the couple were denied a mid-day marriage time by other judges. Intorre’s work schedule wouldn’t accommodate 4pm–when courtrooms are available for marriages. Without a courtroom O’Malley offered to conduct the brief ceremony at noon under a tree at Wright Park. And to make sure everyone found the same tree he suggested meeting in front of the Conservatory.(Janet Jensen/Staff photographer)

A Great Blue Heron perches in the early sun on the beak of the “father raven” of a totem pole on the sand spit of the former Haley property on the Key Peninsula. The property is now owned by the Washington state parks and remains unnamed and undeveloped.

Eric Williams and Dave Boling talk about the first day of practice.

Michael King, 7, of Gig Harbor works on his ship in a Ships in Bottles class taught by instructor Jeff Simmons in Tacoma. The class is a summer activity for the Foss Waterway Seaport’s “Whoopee! It’s Wednesday” weekly event for kids. Next Wednesday will have the life cycle of a salmon. For more details about the weekly events check www.fosswaterwayseaport.org.        (Lui Kit Wong/Staff photographer)

Fire spinners Jacob Jung, foreground, and Tai Rae, of Vashon Island, practice their moves with double staffs on Ruston Way, in Tacoma, July 6, 2011. The pair spent time on the waterfront before Jung boarded the train to visit family in Oregon.(Janet Jensen/Staff photographer)

Jaydee Jones of Seattle watches skate boarders at Tollefson Plaza, in downtown Tacoma, during “Go Skate Tacoma”, Tuesday afternoon, June 21, 2011. Below: Jake Pogue, of Puyallup, catches big air off the steps of Tollefson. The mostly concrete and generally deserted plaza is a natural magnet for skateboarders who are persistently run off by police. Tuesday skateboarders were granted permission to show off their moves during free skates and competitions events.(Janet Jensen/Staff photographer)

(TOP PHOTO) Whittier Elementary School kindergarteners Violet Egan and Hannah Buehler, from left, are cheered on by their teacher Lori Gallo, right, during the school’s annual field day, in Fircrest, June 3, 2011. (LOWER PHOTO) Between gunny-sack races third-grader Jason Patterson stretches out and protects his eyes from the sun. The filtered light he said gave him the sensation of being at the ocean. Students rotated through 19 activity stations. “We’re lucky today. We didn’t get to do this last year. It was miserable weather. It rained,” exclaimed fourth grade teacher Maryetta Alberts.(Janet Jensen/Staff photographer)