I meet Clancy just eighteen months ago in front of the plane he flew in WWII. We hit it off right away cause we had one thing in common, photography. This is the first portrait I made of him. When I finished a few seconds later, I went up to him to thank him. He said, “nice light, you worked the nice light well.” As I was setting up make this shot, Clancy was telling me story after story the entire time and he had a lot of them. In fact, he didn’t stop talking while I was shooting which was a hoot. And we’ve been talking ever since! Many of the iconic WWII Pacific photographs we see today are Clancy’s as well as so many more. An early aviation pioneer, original AOPA founding member, there wasn’t much in aviation Clancy hadn’t done.
We talked a number of times since our two days at Osh together, our shortest phone conversation was thirty minutes. We were to meet again in August to make another portrait with a plane he flew in the ’30s but he couldn’t make it, being ill. Clancy passed away Christmas day, he was 93. I will miss our talks. God Bless.