EVERETT — Jim Leo, a retired Herald photographer with a passion for breaking news, slept with a radio scanner speaker under his pillow.
He proposed to his future wife on his way to cover a fire and gave her an engagement ring two or three months later in the photo department’s darkroom.
His drive to tell the community what was happening, and to tell them first, meant Leo often beat everyone else to the scene of fires, accidents and police calls.
Leo, a local icon with a Nikon, died Wednesday, one day after heart surgery. He was 73.
“It’s a sad day,” said Warren Burns, the fire chief in Bothell and for many years the fire marshal in Everett. “Jim was an institution for Snohomish County news, without question. He was one of the old school photojournalists who told stories with pictures and did it so well.”
Family, friends, neighbors and police and firefighters gathered Wednesday to offer moral support in the waiting room at Providence Everett Medical Center, the same hospital where James Allen Leo was born on June 3, 1935.
“It was really interesting to see all those people,” said former Herald Publisher Larry Hanson. “Those relationships and friendships just lasted. There was just a lot of respect in the room for what he meant to the newspaper and the community.”
Hanson said law enforcement and firefighters simply trusted Leo and often granted him access others didn’t get. Leo became an honorary Everett firefighter and stayed in close contact with members of the Everett Fire Department, including Fire Chief Murray Gordon, up until his death.
In June, he wore his department-issued fire helmet while he captured photos of the Stewart Title fire in downtown Everett.
Leo spent 47 years working for his hometown newspaper, including 38 years as a photographer.
During that time, he taught fellow photographers and even police and firefighters about taking pictures at breaking news events.
Former Herald photographer Jerry Gay remembers getting tips from Leo when he was breaking into the business in the late 1960s.
In 1975, Gay won a Pulitzer Prize for a photo of firefighters while working for the Seattle Times.
“I probably owe that in a lot of ways to Jim,” Gay said. “He taught me so much about working with firemen and what to do when you get there.”
Leo started working for The Everett Herald as a teenage newspaper carrier in 1950 with a route along Oakes Avenue in north Everett between 14th and 21st streets.
In 1952, he moved to the newspaper’s mailroom. His job for more than two years entailed taking every paper off the conveyor belt as the day’s edition came off the press.
After graduating from Everett High School in 1954, he began working in the circulation department, but his childhood dream was to become a newspaper photographer.
By 1959, he joined the photo staff. He spent nearly 40 years with a camera around his neck and a scanner by his side. He was credited with getting The Herald its first two-way radio system. Long before cell phones, the radios allowed for more flexibility in covering breaking news, because editors were able to communicate with photographers and reporters in the field.
“He didn’t miss anything, breaking-news-wise, that went on in this county,” said Michael O’Leary, a Herald photographer who worked with Leo for more than 20 years. “He had great sources in law enforcement.”
Photographer Dan Bates remembers showing up to a fire only to be told Leo had already come, taken photos and left.
Retired Herald reporter Jim Haley worked with Leo for more than four decades.
“He literally slept with a police scanner and was hungry for covering spot news at all hours of the day,” Haley said. “When he showed up in the morning with prints from an event, he’d make sure I knew who should be contacted to get the full story. He didn’t want to miss anything, and Jim was quick to call me at home in the middle of the night to give me a heads-up about a shooting, accident or a fire.
“On top of all that, he was a great guy,” Haley said. “I loved him.”
Fred Walser remembered meeting Leo in the 1960s when he was starting out as a Washington State Patrol trooper in Snohomish County. Leo taught him and other troopers how to take pictures of accident scenes.
“I would call Jim and ask directions to accident sites,” Walser said. “Jim knew Snohomish County well.”
Leo was not only gutsy in taking tough shots, he was also sensitive to crash victims, said Walser, a former Sultan Police chief.
“The man was the best at what he did. He was always there,” Walser said.
“Every police officer who knew him respected Jim,” he said.
Burns, the former Everett fire marshal, also remembers Leo getting to fires first.
As firefighters rolled up to burning homes and buildings, they’d often find Leo already there snapping photos, Burns said.
Leo could get dressed and arrive at fires near his home faster than the fire department, without the aid of lights and sirens.
“It became a race,” Burns said.
Leo’s photos, especially taken early as a fire began to burn, became evidence in several fire investigations, Burns said.
“We used his pictures to solve fires,” he said.
Ken Lakey, 55, president of the Snohomish County Search and Rescue, said Leo often joined in as volunteers combed Snohomish County mountains for people who had become lost or hurt.
“Jim was always there taking pictures,” Lakey said.
Sometimes, when volunteers struggled carrying a stretcher or some other task, Leo would put down his camera to lend a helping hand.
After Leo retired from The Herald, he donated historical photos to the search-and-rescue group when in 2001 they dedicated their operations center near Snohomish in honor of John Taylor.
His photos also were used in a 1992 book “The Fire Boys,” written by Charles Z. Henderson. The book covered 100 years of Everett firefighting history.
Known to many of his friends by his newspaper radio call sign, “33,” Leo is survived by his wife, Connie Rae; son, Jeff; and daughter, Lori. The Leos were married 45 years.
Jeff Leo said he was in his mother’s arms when he went with his dad to his first breaking-news events.
The father and son spent years covering spot news events together. Jeff ultimately followed in his dad’s footsteps, becoming a newspaper photographer. He now works for the Newnan Times-Herald south of Atlanta and well remembers his dad’s lessons.
“Building relationships with the fire department and police department was his forte,” Jeff Leo said. “It was just the passion, the adrenaline, the capturing that image, he just thrived on it. I don’t know what pushed him.”
Jeff Leo said he believes his father’s lessons rubbed off on him.
“He taught me so much,” he said. “He was my mentor and my best friend.”
Funeral services are still being arranged.
Reporters Jackson Holtz, Yoshiaki Nohara and David Chircop contributed to this story.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or e-mail stevick@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
