STATEN ISLAND, N.Y., Sept. 8 (UPI) — Known as a hard-scrambled newsman with an eye for outstanding photography and a loving family man with a helping hand for anyone who needed it, Larry DeSantis left a lasting impression on some many people around the world.
DeSantis, a renowned photo editor for United Press International, spent some 40 years making sure only the best photos made it into the public eye and ensuring his photographers worked to their fullest potential. By the time he retired in the early 1990s, he had launched the careers of some of the best photographers today. DeSantis died Saturday following complications from a stroke. He was 85.
“Larry really was the best photo editor I ever worked with,” said Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly, who later became President Gerald R. Ford’s White House photographer. “I directly attribute my Pulitzer Prize to his choices.”
Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., DeSantis graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School and later Brooklyn College with an English degree.
In the newsroom, the cigar-chomping DeSantis was known for his expertise in picking out the best pictures from rolls of negatives and never mincing words when he thought they were shoddy. He kept photographers on their toes, always pushing them to do better. Photographers, in turn, wanted to impress DeSantis, a tough thing to do at times. He never let anyone make excuses and expected only the best.
Former colleague Don Mullens described DeSantis as a “tough, cynical, old-school photo editor willing to do damn near anything to beat AP, Reuters, or anybody else trying to get breaking news photos in the papers.”
While he wasn’t a photographer, DeSantis was quick to pick out top photographs.
In 1971, DeSantis quietly submitted Kennerly’s photos to the Pulitzer jury. The images from Vietnam and Cambodia during the Vietnam War took the 1972 award in the Feature Photography category.
Less than 10 years later, DeSantis picked out another winner, this one of a group of men standing before a firing squad in Iran, taken by an anonymous photographer. While the photographer was later revealed as Jahangir Razmi, in 1980 the photograph became the first anonymous image to receive a Pulitzer. All because DeSantis took a chance.
“It was transmitted to us with no name,” DeSantis later told the Wall Street Journal. “Not knowing who made it interested me.”
When he wasn’t working in the newsroom, DeSantis showed just as much exuberance at home. He married his high school sweetheart AnnMarie in 1951 and just recently celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary. They went on to have three daughters, Barbara, Lorraine and Deborah, who died in 2012.
Daughter Barbara Amari said her father was proud of the work he did, filling their house with photos of him with dignitaries. One of his favorites was a photo of him and AnnMarie greeting President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan. He loved seeing himself and his wife dressed to the nines with the first couple.
Amari said the family wants her father to be remembered for “his big heart and how much he did for everyone.”
“He was always there for everyone,” she said. “He would help a stranger.”
DeSantis is also survived by his brother, Frank, and five grandchildren.
Comment count on this article reflects comments made on Breitbart.com and Facebook. Visit Breitbart's Facebook Page.