Daily News legend, photographer Elwood Smith, dies at 91

THE WORDS that flashed on the scoreboard at Veterans Stadium early one soggy morning said it all:

ALSO STILL HERE

ELWOOD P. SMITH

Smitty photographed the message, and it was framed and installed in the Daily News newsroom. It concisely summed up the career of a man who devoted more than 68 years to recording the pulse and passions of his native city with a camera.

A big part of his photography career was sports. And just because that rain-spattered Phillies game dragged inning after inning into the wee hours, Smitty was not about to desert his post.

That kind of dedication was the hallmark of his career.

And Smitty loved the work. He was without a doubt a most happy fella. He was happy in his work, happy in his marriage, happy in his relations with fellow staffers and the people he photographed.

"I don't think I ever saw him in a bad mood or without a smile on his face," said Daily News sportswriter Bernard Fernandez. "To enjoy your life and your work so much is a blessing, and this was a special person who had a zest for both."

"Elwood was 'old-school,' " said Daily News photographer Steven Falk. "He came to work happy and ready to go, just like it was his first day on the job."

Elwood Proctor Smith, a native of South Philly who took some of the city's most iconic images, including Frank Rizzo with a nightstick in his cummerbund and the bare backsides of arrested Black Panthers, and a former Marine proud of his service in the South Pacific during World War II, died Jan. 26 of pneumonia after cancer surgery. He was 91 and lived in the Far Northeast.

One of the sources of Smitty's happy attitude was simply being in the newspaper business. When he was in his 80s, a reporter asked him how he managed to stay so young and vigorous. "It's this business," he replied, "this newspaper business."

Only once was his happiness dimmed. It was on Nov. 18, 2005, when he retired from the Daily News. He had often said that he wanted to die on the job. He also jokingly used the expression, "90 and out," referring to his retirement plans.

But he decided that the time had come. When former colleague Loie Grossman called him to congratulate him on his retirement, he told her, "This is the saddest day of my life, gal."

However, he soon adapted to his new life, largely because he got to spend more time with his beloved wife, the former Anne Hillgrube.

"You know, this is the happiest time of my life," he told Wayne Bush, a retired Daily News lab technician. "I get to hear Anne laugh. It brings joy to my heart."

Smitty always worked the 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift, and every evening before he went to work, he and Anne would have dinner at Tiffany's Diner, on Roosevelt Boulevard.

"We had the early-bird special," she said.

Anne had given Smitty the large brass buckle with the Marine Corps symbol that he wore the rest of his life. He was always nattily attired, thanks to Anne.

"I tried to keep him on his toes," she said.

Carol Towarnicky, an associate member of the Daily News editorial board, recalls the time when Smitty wore a tuxedo on a job.

It was the occasion of the visit to Philadelphia by Queen Elizabeth II at the Art Museum during the Bicentennial in 1976.

"We were told we had to dress formally," Carol said. "I pulled out a long formal, and Smitty was wearing a reasonable facsimile of a tuxedo. We get to the museum and find that our big night would consist of standing behind a rope with a herd of other reporters."

Daily News columnist Elmer Smith recalls the time that Smitty was being honored by fellow staffers on his 60th anniversary with the paper. Staffers took turns speaking his praises.

"When it came time for Smitty to speak, he surprised everybody by saying, 'My wife had a medical examination today. She's fine.' And tears came to his eyes," Smith said.

"I was stunned. That was the only thing on his mind. Later, I asked him if they had any children. He said no. 'She's my baby and I'm her baby.' "

Smitty had some unusual habits. He brought his lunch to work every day - peanut butter and jelly on high-fiber bread - in a bag that he recycled daily until it wore out.

He also cut his own hair.

"He wasn't going to waste money in a barbershop," Anne said.

Smitty could be something of a curmudgeon, but he went out of his way to help colleagues and newcomers to the business.

"God, I loved Smitty," said Daily News columnist Ronnie Polaneczky. "Some time back, my parents came to visit the newsroom. My mom was about 78 at the time, and Smitty met her. He told me later, with a lascivious look, that she was 'quite a looker.'

"It tickled me silly, that my mom - who had birthed nine kids and had bad knees - could put a glint in the eye of a man who wasn't her husband. What a grand old soul Smitty was!"

Michael Mercanti, Daily News photo editor, said that he remembered how Smitty befriended him when he was doing freelance photography and trying to sell his photos to the newspaper.

"Nothing was more intimidating than walking into this building and facing photo editors and real newspaper photographers," Mercanti said. "Elwood was the exception. He was always gracious and helpful to newcomers.

"He processed the film, printed and captioned it and then walked you through to the appropriate editors. After I began working with him, I watched him do the same thing for other young photographers innumerable times."

Michael Hinkelman, Daily News federal-court reporter, recalled, "When I first came to work for the Daily News back in 1997, Elwood saw me in the newsroom and recognized I was a new face. He was one of the first people to welcome me to the Daily News family and I'll never forget it."

Some of Smitty's photos over the years gained international fame. Like the 1969 shot of then-Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo with a nightstick in his cummerbund leaving a formal affair to supervise coverage of a riot in Tasker Homes.

When the police in 1970 rousted several Black Panthers from a store where they were barricaded at 35th and Wallace streets, lined them up against a wall and made them undress, Smitty was there to catch the action.

He once told a writer that that was his favorite photo. "I was right there in the middle of the action. Bullets were flying all around," he said. "That picture went all around the world."

A sports picture that Smitty took of a scuffle among football players around Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Smitty was born in South Philadelphia to Herbert and Sarah Smith. He graduated from South Philadelphia High School. He and Anne were married in 1942 while he was in the Marines.

He was stationed at an air field on Ulithi Atoll, in the Caroline Islands, and flew as a reconnaissance photographer. He was discharged in 1945.

"He didn't talk much about the war," Anne said. "He did say he met Ernie Pyle."

Smitty started at the Daily News as a copy boy in 1937. He was promoted to photographer and covered his first baseball game at Shibe Park in 1941.

After the war, he returned to the Daily News, worked for a time for the old Bulletin, did freelance work and finally settled in at the Daily News in 1962.

In 1980, he was hit in the left eye with a hockey puck while covering a Flyers game. He lost much of the vision in that eye and had to wear a contact lens and bifocals the rest of his life.

Smitty was frequently honored. At one memorable event, he threw out the first ball at a Phillies-Cardinals game while being honored for 50 years of photographing baseball in 1991.

His fellow photographers all carried the old Speed Graphic cameras as a tribute to Smitty and the first camera Smitty used in his career.

His wife is his only survivor. At his request, there will be no funeral. He asked that in lieu of flowers or donations, "just do a good deed for an elderly person."