Paul Vathis was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 photojournalist. He was a photographer for the Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

 for 56 years.

Life

He was one of eight children of Greek immigrant parents in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania.
He got his start in World War II. He was a World War II Marine combat veteran, where he shot bomb damage pictures of South Pacific island caves. Before the war he had never even held a camera before. He was married to Barbara Vathis and had three children Victoria, Randy, and Stephanie. He died at age 77 in his home.

Career

He joined the AP in Philadelphia, in 1946; he spent most of his career at the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...

 bureau of the AP, starting in 1952.

In 1962, he took a picture of President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 and former President Dwight Eisenhower walking together at Camp David

Camp David

Camp David is the country retreat of the President of the United States and his guests. It is located in low wooded hills about 60 mi north-northwest of Washington, D.C., on the property of Catoctin Mountain Park in unincorporated Frederick County, Maryland, near Thurmont, at an elevation of...

.
He covered such events as Wilt Chamberlain

Wilt Chamberlain

Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain was an American professional NBA basketball player for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers; he also played for the Harlem Globetrotters prior to playing in the NBA...

's 100-point basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 game in 1962, where he was just originally just taking his son Randy to see a game, and the Budd Dwyer

Budd Dwyer

Robert Budd Dwyer was an American politician in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He served from 1971 to 1981 as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate representing the state's 50th district...

 suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 in 1987 at the Harrisburg capitol building.
In 1979, he helped cover the nation's worst nuclear power accident at Three Mile Island.
He died in 2002 in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania

Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania

Mechanicsburg is a borough in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, USA, eight miles west of Harrisburg. It is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area. Mechanicsburg was settled in 1806 and incorporated as a borough on April 12, 1828...

.