Larry Ruehl was a newspaper photographer and photo editor known for his competitive instincts, a sharp eye for what made for a good photograph and a willingness to mentor younger colleagues.
“As a photojournalist, Larry couldn’t — and wouldn’t — be beat,” said former Tribune reporter Richard Wronski, who worked alongside Ruehl at the Daily Southtown. “He captured the moment better than anyone, and this was when photographers actually loaded 35-millimeter film and before cameras had the digital features we now take for granted.”
Ruehl, 71, died Aug. 13 at the Villa of Palos Heights skilled nursing facility in Palos Heights, said his wife of 49 years, Geri. He had been a longtime Evergreen Park resident.
Born in Chicago, Ruehl grew up in Evergreen Park and graduated from Evergreen Park High School. He then attended Southern Illinois University.
In 1970, Ruehl was hired as a photographer at the Southtown Economist, which at that time was a twice-weekly newspaper.
“In those early days, we had a staff of four to five photographers and they all prided themselves at being the first on the scene of a fire, accident or other news event,” Wronski said. “But none prided himself more than Larry. They all listened to their police scanners constantly, even on their time off.”
Longtime Daily Southtown columnist Phil Kadner recalled covering a demonstration in June 1976 in the Marquette Park neighborhood, then a mostly white area. Tensions were high between a neo-Nazi group and Black residents, and journalists covering the melee encountered angry white residents shouting racial slurs and hurling bricks, bottles and other projectiles, Kadner said.
“I took cover in a shop doorway and as I looked back, I saw Larry Ruehl…standing back-to-back in the middle of the street with a photographer for the Chicago Tribune, between the marchers and the angry mob. They had their cameras up to their faces and were shooting photos as debris struck them and landed all around them,” Kadner said. “Larry, having been struck in the face, was bleeding from a cut near his eye. He didn’t stop shooting. And I remember thinking to myself, ‘That’s what a photojournalist looks like.'”
In 1978, the Southtown Economist switched to publishing six days a week and changed its name to the Daily Southtown. Ruehl continued shooting news and feature photos. Later, he was promoted to become the paper’s photo editor.
“He was a really good photo editor because he had seen and done most everything — everything from fires to murders to shootings to weather photos. You name it, he’d done it,” said Bill Konway, a former Daily Southtown photographer who worked with Ruehl for more than a decade. “And if you took the time to talk to him and ask him about what you were going to (cover), he would always have some sort of advice as to how he would do it.”
Tribune photographer Chris Sweda worked with Ruehl at the Daily Southtown for nine years at the start of Sweda’s career. Ruehl’s philosophy in shooting photos, Sweda said, included capturing straight horizon lines.
“He liked his own photographs well organized, not too busy and that carried over to his editing style with photographers (who) worked under him,” Sweda said. “Upon coming back from assignments as a very young shooter at the time, I remember bracing for the inevitable comment about fixing the horizon line even when just a tad skewed. Moments later, he might crack a joke unrelated to the situation at hand and carry it along with his own signature belly laugh.”
Kadner recalled Ruehl’s interest in keeping the Daily Southtown on the cutting edge of photojournalism with the latest photo equipment and technology. And, Kadner said Ruehl was loath to critique the work of his reporter colleagues.
“He was such an ardent photojournalist that he refused to judge reporters in an in-house writing contest we used to have at the Daily Southtown,” Kadner said. “He told me, ‘I know photojournalism. Writers shouldn’t judge our work and we shouldn’t judge yours.’ (He was a) tough guy when he had his mind set on something.”
Ruehl left the Daily Southtown in 2013 as part of a much-criticized decision by the Chicago Sun-Times, which was the Daily Southtown’s parent organization at the time, to fire almost all photographers. The Tribune acquired the Daily Southtown in 2014.
Outside of work, Ruehl enjoyed playing poker with his colleagues, shooting nine-ball pool and woodworking, said his wife, Geri.
In addition to his wife, Ruehl is survived by two sons, Jason and Daniel; and five grandchildren.
There were no services.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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