Dupont resident and local photographer Bill Lukasik Sr. passes away at 90

Photographs can preserve a memory by capturing a moment in time. Bill Lukasik Sr. captured a whole lifetime of memories.

Bill Sr. passed away on Thursday, March 5 in his home in Dupont at the age of 90. According to Bill’s son, Bill Lukasik Jr., he went peacefully.

Lukasik Sr. is best known for his photography, from weddings photos to images of the Knox Mine Disaster in 1959.

His work with his brother, the late Stephen Lukasik, who passed away in 2009, captured the attention of people in the Greater Pittston area and beyond.

Just getting started

Bill Sr. was born on April 14, 1924, in Dupont, where he lived his entire life and graduated from Dupont High School in 1943.

After his high school days, Bill Sr. went into the U.S. Army where he served until 1946 with the anti aircraft battery, platoon 37 M.M Gun Machine Gun Calibur 50. After he returned home, he attended Antonelli Institute of Graphic Design and Photography in Philadelphia.

In November 1946, Bill Sr. and his brother opened Lukasik Studio and operated it until 2006, when Stephen suffered from a stroke.

Both Bill Sr. and Steve were enlisted as freelance photogrpahers with papers such as the Sunday Dispatch, Times Leader, Citizens’ Voice and Times-Tribune, among others.

William Watson III, son of previous Sunday Dispatch owner William "Pidge" Watson Jr. and grandson to Dispatch founder William A. Watson Sr., had the privilege of working with the Lukasik brothers.

Watson, who currently resides in Colorado, worked with the Lukasiks from 1976 until 1989 before he moved on to work for the Times Leader and eventually the Citizens’ Voice.

He described Bill and Steve as being "unbelievably dedicated to their work."

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"They were news photographers, they went where the news was," said Watson. "To them, getting the shot was everything. They were the ones you’d go to to get pictures. They were always with the Dispatch; every Saturday night, one or the other would be there. They were artists."

Bill Lukasik Jr., also of Dupont, said his dad would often call today’s newspaper photographers "snap shooters," meaning they could snap a photo and let their computers do the rest of the work. Bill Jr. recalled a time when his dad and uncle worked under more difficult circumstances.

"When you were finished with whatever that particular assignment was, you had to come back (to the studio), develop your negative, dry the negative enough for it to be printed, then print the photo, develop your photo, get the photo dry enough to be able to take it back up to Scranton, to the Dispatch or to Wilkes-Barre so it could be in the paper," said Bill Jr. "They would have to hold the press of certain pages just for that and it didn’t matter if it was a nice summer evening or ice and snow, that’s the only way it was getting back to the paper."

Residents remember

Aside from the work Bill and Steve put into the local newspapers, their wedding photos helped them make a name for themselves in the Greater Pittston area.

Pittston resident Julie Donahue will always remember the work Bill Sr. and Steve did for her family.

"My wedding was in 1980 and at the time Lukasiks (photographed) so many local brides — I think (in) the social section of the Dispatch you could see all of the shots they did," said Donahue. "Both brothers, they did my kids’ baby pictures, my daughter’s engagement pictures; their work was top rate. You just couldn’t find anything better at the time."

Donahue knew the Lukasiks through her father, who served in in the U.S. Army with Steve in the early 1950s. The Lukasiks did all kinds of photography for the Donahue family.

"They were very personable, very easy to deal with and very accommodating," said Donahue. "They did anything you wanted as far as pictures and shots. I remember them doing our wedding and they were just great. Anything you could want, they would accommodate you for. They were fabulous. The proof of their great work we’ll have forever."

"They never had an outside person to come in and do the work," said Bill Jr. "If you wanted the Lukasiks to do your wedding, you either got Bill or Steve, or both."

Knox Mine Disaster

Both Bill Sr. and Steve were on hand for the infamous Knox Mine Disaster in Pittston on Jan. 22, 1959.

The disaster occured when coal miners were illegally digging under the Susquehanna River, tunneling sharply upwards toward the river bed. Eventually, the water and mine roof collapsed into the mine, killing 12 of the 81 workers.

According to a Sunday Dispatch report, Steve Lukaski said he received a tip from one of the newspaper editors to go and see what was happening. Steve saw something happening and, luckily, had his camera on him to photograph the events.

Steve is responsible for the famous photo of Joe Stella emerging from the Eagle air shaft while Bill Sr.’s best-known photo of the disaster is what is referred to as "the whirlpool," a photo of the collapsed section of the Susquehanna River.

Bill Sr. and his brother have had their work published in books and documentaries about the Knox Mine Disaster.

Wisconsin University History Professor Dr. Robert P. Wolensky said he has published multiple books on the Knox Mine Disaster as well as books on the Anthracite labor wars and on the ladies garment industries in Pittston and Wyoming areas.

Wolensky used photos shot by the Lukasik brothers in all of those works.

"Without their photographs, my books would have been poor," said Wolensky. "They greatly, greatly enhanced those books with their images."

Wolensky is currently working on second volume to his ladies garment worker books and will use more photos from Steve and Bill Sr.

"I knew Steve real well. I was at his funeral and they were two great guys who have documented so much of local history through photographs," said Wolensky. "They were really photographic historians."

Preserving a legacy

With around two to three million photo negatives in his posession from his dad’s old work, Bill Jr. said they have been working with the Greater Pittston Historical Society to preserve them.

"The historical society is taking those images, box by box and digitizing all of those negatives of historical value," said Bill Jr. "This way they’ll outlive the negatives themselves."

Bill Jr. said they are working to get old photos back to anyone wanting them, whether they were weddings, engagements or any other events. He said any donations being made to get the photos back will go towards Bill Sr.’s funeral, to be announced at a later time. Bill Jr. can be reached at lukasikstudio@aol.com.

Bill Jr. has heard of the support his family has been receiving personally and through social media, but says it’s funny how his dad and social media worked.

"Dad wouldn’t know what social media is if it hit him in the face," joked Bill Jr. "He never thought of himself as being a social butterfly. He never realized how many people’s lives he touched."

Bill Sr. is survived by his two children, Bill Jr. and daughter, Debra Ann Mulner; and a nephew, Stephen Lukasik.

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