Norman R. Vogel
WJZ-TV photographer whose shots of sunrises became a fixture of its morning news show enjoyed boating, playing piano, wintering in Florida
Norman R. Vogel, a veteran WJZ-TV photographer whose stunning sunrises became a fixture of its morning news broadcast and who helped tired Baltimoreans transition to daytime, died of complications from dementia Feb. 18 at Lighthouse Senior Living at Hopkins Creek in Essex. He was 84.
“When I came to WJZ as a reporter, I had spent 15 years in rock ’n’ roll and news and had never been out with a film crew, so they assigned Norman to me,” said Richard Sher, a veteran WJZ-TV broadcaster and host of “Square Off,” which ran on WMAR-TV and is now online at squareoff.net.
“He taught me everything I knew or know about TV news. Norman was a craftsman, distinctive, and took great film.
“We were basically an odd couple for 14 years, but we had a ball and we told great stories, both sad and happy.”
Ron Matz, a retired WJZ reporter, worked with Mr. Vogel and was a close friend.
“Norman was a true Baltimore character and a classic who loved the city,” Mr. Matz said. “He’s just a great story and [he] was an absolute joy to be around.
“His legacy is how he taught other photographers their craft, and his sunrise photographs were a major part of ‘Eyewitness News Morning Edition.’ ”
Norman Roland Vogel, son of William C. Vogel, a South Baltimore tavern and roofing company owner, and Matilda Vogel, a homemaker, was born at home on Fort Avenue and later moved with his family to Randall Street.
Mr. Vogel attended the now-closed Southern High School in Baltimore.
“One day his mother asked him to wash the windows on the rowhouse, and he dropped out of school and enlisted in the Air Force,” said his wife of 52 years, the former Margaret Kathleen “Cathy” Reilly. “And he earned his GED while in the Air Force.”
While he was in the service Mr. Vogel chose photography over radar training. After being discharged from the Air Force, he went to work for Monumental Films making commercials and in 1963 joined WJZ-TV as a cameraman.
Nine years later Mr. Vogel, who had won cameraman of the year and was president of the Baltimore Press Photographers Association in 1972, was fired because of his drinking.
“They simply could no longer tolerate my behavior. And you could have hit me upside of the head with a two-by-four,” he
explained in a 1992 Sun Magazine article. “No one ever sat me down and said, ‘You’re a drunk.’ But I was just getting in so much trouble and my wife was leaving me constantly.”
When everything in his life fell apart, Mr. Vogel met several members of Alcoholics Anonymous, who explained what it was about, and he joined.
“And then at 36 I stopped drinking,” he said in the interview. He said he began drinking when the “going got tough or you needed a little courage, get yourself a little of that firewater.”
Two Channel 13 reporters, the legendary Jerry Turner and George Bauman, intervened and persuaded station officials to give Mr. Vogel a second chance and he resumed his career.
“I was reinstated and they gave me everything back, as if I’d never left,” he said.
“I spoke at many anniversaries of Norman’s sobriety,” Mr. Sher said. “He mentored many, many young guys and women, getting them onto the path of sobriety.”
Mr. Vogel had an eye for stories, colleagues recalled.
“I called it ‘the Norman Vogel Rule,’ ” Mr. Sher said. “If we were driving and saw something and we looked twice, we knew it was worth a story. So we’d stop and do a feature story.
“Norman got used to me because I’m a little neurotic, and when we had finished one story I wanted to get on to the next one. And all he wanted was a cup of coffee and a cigarette.”
For years Mr. Vogel’s sunrise picture on WJZ’s morning news program helped sleepy Baltimoreans start their day.
“He was an incredible talent,” said Marty Bass, who was co-host with Don Scott of WJZ’s morning broadcast. “He was someone who could take a camera, and through video and film tell a story. He could see and feel a story.”
On his way to work one morning in 1986 Mr. Vogel was leaving his home in Brooklyn, saw the sun rising and took a picture of it.
“They liked it at the station and now I do it every day,” Mr. Vogel said in the interview.
“He’d park at Harbor Hospital and took the sunrise picture from the same spot every day,” Mr. Bass said. “You could chart the course of the sun and seasons from Norm’s pictures.
“That feature of his, the audience really liked it. [It] put us on the map.”
Former longtime WJZ reporter Frank Luber described Mr. Vogel as a “master cinematographer who could see important things through a lens that I couldn’t see and was a great editor.”
“In those days we were using 16-millimeter film, and you had to make dozens and dozens of cuts and then glue it all together for a 1 ½-minute spot,” Mr. Luber said. “Norman was a master at this.”
Another popular feature that Mr. Vogel worked on was “Now and Then,” which took archival news film and revisited those subjects.
“We went over to Tolchester Beach, which had once been a popular day destination for Baltimoreans,” Mr. Luber recalled. “What was left was an overgrown midway with weeds all over old amusement rides. What Norman did was intersperse pictures from the past to what we were seeing in the present.”
Mr. Vogel retired in 1997 but had a second career working for his wife, the founder of Sunrise Safety Services Inc. in Glen Burnie, which, among other things, made highway signs.
“I put him in charge of making and running the sign department,” Mrs. Vogel said of her husband, who retired several years ago because of declining health.
The couple lived for 42 years in Brooklyn before moving to Middle River. Mr. Vogel enjoyed spending winters in Bradenton, Florida, and boating. He also liked playing piano, Cajun music, singing Irish drinking songs, gardening and painting.
At the time of his death Mr. Vogel had celebrated 48 years of sobriety, his wife said.
A celebration-of-life gathering will be held March 18 at noon at Sunrise Safety Services Inc. at 6711 Bay Meadow Drive in Glen Burnie.
In addition to his wife of 52 years, he is survived by three daughters, Angela Newman of Pasadena, Linda Vogel of Baltimore and Lisa Vogel Lane of Florida; a stepson, Kenneth McHoul of Pasadena; two stepdaughters, Rita Rhine of Hampden and Bridget McHoul of Florida; a sister, Dale Vogel of Middle River; and numerous grand and great-grandchildren. An earlier marriage to Margaret Eileen Gunning ended in divorce.