A column by Rick Steelhammer of The Charleston Gazette
Lawrence Pierce
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Here are some of the things I’ll associate with the memory of Lawrence Pierce, who died on Friday after 52 years on the job as a Gazette photographer:
A ball cap with a Gazette logo nearly obliterated by time and wear.
A shirt pocket crammed with pens, folded photo assignments and $2 Keno scratch-off tickets.
A Diet Coke can nestled in a cup holder dusted with cigarette ash.
A covert “gimme-a-break” eye roll worth a thousand words in dismissing unsound management policies or outrageous statements by interview subjects.
A willingness, at a moment’s notice, to travel all day and half the night to illustrate whatever story I’ve managed to conjure up from the far corners of our circulation area.
When you add up all the road trip miles I’ve logged with Larry Pierce during the past 40 years, it probably works out to the equivalent of a round trip to the Moon. It’s been a good ride. I just wish it could have lasted a little longer — there were a few roads we had yet to travel.