Huntington Alum's Widow Writes
to Website
After Andrew Govan Dantzler, Jr. passed away at 71, the Huntington School District's website carried a story about the 1957 alum. His widow eventually came across the article several months later while doing family research and she sent an interesting electronic message to the website.
The caption under Mr. Dantzler's photo in the 1957 edition of The Huntingtonian, the Huntington High School yearbook, states: "Shutter-bug supreme . . . Hunting his hobby . . . Pleasing personality." He began taking photos as a teenager in 1954. It was a sign of things to come.
During high school, Mr. Dantzler was a member of the projection squad and the photography club as a sophomore, junior and senior. He played football and ran track as a sophomore. As a senior, he was also a member of the Aqua-Devils, a group of 38 "frogmen" and six "lovely ladies." The Aqua-Devils enjoyed swimming lessons and learning the fundamentals of skin diving techniques and underwater exploration, photography and spear fishing.
Elaine Dantzler wrote that she had stumbled upon a link to the article about her husband and "I was deeply touched to read this wonderful tribute to him and want to thank you."
Mr. Dantzler was a Halesite Fire Department volunteer before serving a six year stint in the United States Marine Corps. True to the high school yearbook, he was assigned as a combat photographer with the Marines. He eventually studied underwater photography at Florida Institute of Technology and then went on to work for the Grumman Aerospace Corporation's Apollo lunar module project as a motion picture and still photographer.
"I knew that my husband had enjoyed his high school years and I've enjoyed reading though his yearbook," Mrs. Dantzler wrote in her message. "After reading what so many of the girl's wrote it became even more apparent that 'my' Govan always had a way with the ladies…Whenever I 'lost' him in a store I would know that most times he would be found talking with at least one lovely young woman. {SMILE} I valued the friendships I still have with many of the women he had befriended. I also enjoyed reading the different 'jabs' from the guys about his being a Marine."
In 1974, after the Apollo project wound down, Mr. Dantzler moved to Sullivan County in the Catskills region. He worked as a freelance photo-journalist, taught adult education courses for Sullivan County BOCES and conducted photography workshops at Sullivan Community College. He was involved in local arts organizations and was a photo-journalist for The River Reporter. He even served with the Sullivan County Deputy Sheriff's Department Highway Patrol and was an elected justice of the peace for 12 years.
"Today I was browsing through your website," Mrs. Dantzler wrote. "I know Andy always stressed that in order to understand digital photography you needed to understand the basics of photography and after reading that the school was teaching the same idea I decided to ask you if your school wanted at least some of Andy's photography books, booklets, and/or notes. A good part of his earlier books were given to a friend to use for her daughter's Christmas dark room, but I still have numerous publications; with dates as far back as 1950 through the 2000's."
The 1957 Huntington alum was residing in Union Dale, Pennsylvania at the time of his passing.