KTRK: Photographer
In early July, I had a note that former abc13 KTRK photographer L. Marshall Jard III, 69, had passed away.
What I didn’t have a chance to tell you about was his impact on Houston TV.
With the passing of Jard, also passes a TV journalist who didn’t need an assignments desk editor for a story. Jard was one of those old school guys who management trusted to unleash on the streets and find his own breaking news. He rarely worked with a reporter towards the end of his career.
Jard worked at the ABC owned station for nearly 36 years – starting in 1974. Depending on the year, he worked overnights or daytime hours. Co-workers say he had sources in the Houston-area police, fire, constable and sheriff’s departments. He was usually the first journalist on a breaking scene because of that.
“We worked together at KTRK, and he was the first photographer I worked with there,” former KTRK anchor Van Hackett wrote on Jard’s Legacy page. “He had great street smarts, an outstanding sense of humor and was always a delight to work with. He will be greatly missed by those who knew and worked with him.”
Jard was a larger than life character who friends remember having a twinkle in his eye and a certain calming presence when the big stories broke.
“Marshall taught me how to load film in a CP-16 camera, and how to sniff out a news story,” former KTRK photographer Dave Davis, who became WABC’s general manager, wrote on Legacy. “He was a smart, funny, kind man. I will always be grateful for his influence on my career.”
I hear Jard had battled some health issues leading up to his death.
Some of Jard’s Houston television colleagues that attended his memorial service include: Tim Melton, Melanie Lawson, Chris Swanson, Phil Grant, Dave Strickland, Don Kobos, Lori Reingold, Don Nelson, Paul Mills, Gene Miller, John Mizwa, Mary Ellen Conway, Steve Osmon, Larry Mullins and Bill Balleza.
Newsmaker: Roy W. Howard, the Mastermind Behind the Scripps-Howard News Empire From the Gilded Age to the Atomic Age by Patricia Beard
In the first half of the 20th century, the golden age of newspapers, the colorful, charismatic, and controversial Roy W. Howard reigned as the most famous publisher, editor and journalist of his time. Named one of “The 29 Men Who ‘Rule’ America’” on the front page of the New York Times, Howard built the United Press; was chairman of Scripps-Howard, one of the two biggest newspaper empires in the United States; and was president and editor of the New York World-Telegram. The first global news entrepreneur, he was a model for journalism in the digital age.
Howard traveled 2.5 million miles to land unique scoops, and was the privileged confidante of every US president from Woodrow Wilson to Dwight D. Eisenhower. He met privately and conducted one-on-one interviews with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler, Churchill, and the Emperor of Japan, and advised the most renowned figures of his time, among them a muddled Duke of Windsor, a grieving Charles Lindberg, and a desperate Chang Kai-shek.
Based on fifty years of Roy Howard’s privately held diaries, and thousands of pages of his “Strictly Confidential” memoranda, Newsmaker’s author Patricia Beard takes the reader behind the scenes of a turbulent era, and provides background to the role of journalism in the digital age.
Leave a Reply