TV cameraman Howard Ramaley dies at 84

For more than three decades, Seattle residents saw their city through Howard Ramaley's eyes.

Mr. Ramaley's 33-year career as a television cameraman began in 1953, the same year TV news arrived in the Puget Sound area.

His first TV job involved taking still photographs for KMO-TV, when that Tacoma station began broadcasting on channel 13 in 1953. Later that year Mr. Ramaley accepted a job to help KOMO in Seattle expand beyond radio and enter the television age, and he moved his family to the Wedgwood area of Seattle.

Howard Scott, a former KOMO reporter and news director, worked frequently with Mr. Ramaley. Scott called him a true pioneer who often relied on his own resourcefulness to record images and get them on the air.

"He and the other photographers in his era were the first," Scott said. "They didn't have a book to go to. They wrote the book."

Mr. Ramaley died last week. He was 84.

During his work for KOMO, Mr. Ramaley followed scores of local and international stories and sporting events.

Stephen Ramaley, Mr. Ramaley's son and now also a KOMO cameraman, said his dad was a fixture at Husky Stadium for many years, broadcasting University of Washington football games.

In 1958, at the height of the Cold War, Mr. Ramaley and sportscaster Keith Jackson accompanied the UW men's crew team to the former Soviet Union to cover races in Leningrad, the city now known as St. Petersburg.

When construction of the Space Needle began in April 1961, Mr. Ramaley decided to take still photos of it once a week from the roof of the KOMO building nearby. When construction was complete, he blended the photos into a 30-second video that allowed KOMO viewers to watch the Seattle icon take shape.

Such ingenuity was a hallmark of his career, Scott said.

To accommodate the bulk of early television cameras, Mr. Ramaley constructed a body frame that photographers could use to rest the cameras on to ease the burden.

To take shots at night, Mr. Ramaley used surplus military batteries to power portable 500-watt lights and then built brackets to affix the lights to TV cameras.

His handiness was often on display at home, too, his son said. He was a skilled woodworker, gardener and electrician. He had a home darkroom where he developed photos he took of his son's basketball games and of scouting events in which his daughter, Jane Davis, participated.

Mr. Ramaley was born in Yakima in 1922 and met his first wife, Marilynn, at Davis High School. The two were married shortly before Mr. Ramaley left to serve in World War II. He took part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy, Stephen Ramaley said, and nearly drowned carrying 80 pounds of explosives ashore at Utah Beach.

Mr. Ramaley is survived by his wife of 24 years, Barbara; his son and daughter; and four grandchildren. His first wife died in 1981 after a lengthy illness.

A memorial service will be held Dec. 2 at Southminster Presbyterian Church, 19834 Eighth Ave. S. in Des Moines.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Highline Hospice in Tukwila.

David Bowermaster: 206-464-2724 or dbowermaster@seattletimes.com