Richard Wisdom, longtime Mercury News photographer, dies at 81
From the days of the Speed Graphic through the digital revolution, ‘The Wiz’ shot it all
Richard Wisdom, an award-winning Mercury News photographer for nearly three decades, died April 1 in Rio Vista. He was 81.
He died from congestive heart failure with his family by his side, according to his wife, Kay Wisdom.
Over a 42-year stint as a news photographer in the Bay Area, “The Wiz,” as he was known, distinguished himself for his news instincts and his humanity, capturing subjects as varied as a tragically collapsed Oakland freeway after the 1989 earthquake and a hilariously business-suited runner in San Francisco’s Bay to Breakers.
William Richard Wisdom was born on May 24, 1938, in Tucson, Arizona.
His career as a press photographer began at Tucson High School’s Cactus Chronicle. With the bulky 4×5 Speed Graphic cameras common to the day, Wisdom was able to capture images of visiting dignitaries such as President Dwight Eisenhower and former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt on their annual trips to the desert.
He then landed his first professional jobs at the Tucson Daily Star and the Phoenix Gazette.
In 1973, Wisdom joined the San Jose Mercury News.
Readers of this paper may remember his 1976 photograph of a lonely, driverless Chevy Impala perched precariously 110 feet above the ground on a segment of the infamously incomplete Highways 101-280-680 interchange construction project.
The vehicle had been placed there by frustrated local officials trying to force Gov. Jerry Brown to complete the stalled project. It worked.
When the Loma Prieta earthquake shook the Bay Area in 1989, Wisdom’s photographs of the deadly Cypress structure collapse in Oakland contributed to the paper’s Pulitzer Prize for General Reporting in 1990.
Geri Migielicz, one of his longtime photo editors at the paper and now a visiting journalism professor at Stanford University, remembered Wisdom for his big “ear-to-ear grin.”
“In an industry known for cynicism,” she said, “where photojournalists did their share of grumbling, Wiz greeted every day, every assignment with enthusiasm.”
And he freely shared his passion for photography with others.
Wisdom was a fixture at National Press Photographers Association workshops for decades, at times traveling across the country to inspire young photojournalism students.
Wisdom’s camera captured plenty of tragedy, too. He was sent to Stockton in 1989 after hearing reports about a deadly schoolyard shooting (not so common at the time).
The tragedy claimed the lives of five children and wounded 32 others. His photograph of a police officer talking to a young student made the cover of News Photographer Magazine.
Nine years earlier, he had flown to Washington state to document the apocalyptic landscape around the 1980 Mount St. Helens volcano eruption. His photographs captured a forest of splintered trees flattened among destroyed vehicles.
Though he never blinked when covering the worst that news had to offer, it was his love for the brighter side of humanity that defined his photography.
Readers may recall his image of a runner in a business