Artist's eye, expert skills built Roy Scully's photo career

Roy Scully was a longtime fixture in a newspaper universe that doesn't exist anymore outside of old movies. He got his foot in the door of The Seattle Times as a copy boy in the 1940s, learned his craft from staff photographers and was assistant chief photographer when he retired after a 44-year career at the paper, in 1986.

Mr. Scully died Saturday at 85 of complications from Parkinson's disease. He's remembered as a low-key, extraordinarily humble guy who liked telling stories and making puns, and was immersed in every technical facet of his art.

One of Mr. Scully's sons, Greg, reflected on what had fueled a career of such longevity and, well, focus: "I think Dad liked the variety. He got to meet so many different people and see so much of the Northwest and engage with so many different things.

"He got a merit badge in photography from the Boy Scouts and said, 'This is what I want to do.' He fell in love with it immediately."

Former Times photographer and colleague Bruce McKim said of Mr. Scully's type, "They're nonexistent today. With imaging and computers and everything, the actual skill to photography has diminished somewhat. You can always make a correction by moving a couple of cursors around. Roy was always a forethinker. He would plan his pictures out very well before he'd shoot them."

McKim called Mr. Scully "probably one of the finest fine-art photographers at the paper." And from mixing chemicals and developing film to shooting architecture, McKim said, "he was just a real technician as far as photography went. He was very precise. He very seldom had to do reshoots. When he did a project it was usually done on the first go-around."

Times photographer Greg Gilbert recalled, "When I was a young photographer there, he was very helpful to me."

Gilbert said, "He was kind of ahead of his time" because he shot with a smaller, quieter, less obtrusive camera — a Leica — and used available light instead of a flash. "Roy had more of a Life magazine style of photography. And because he was a marvelous printer, too, he could make prints that some of the rest of us would just look at and scratch our heads."

Mr. Scully's honors included the Cowles Cup, the annual Washington-Oregon Associated Press sweepstakes award in photography.

Roy Edward Scully was born in Seattle in 1924, graduated from Garfield High School in 1942 and attended the University of Washington.

"He was an only child," Greg Scully said. "His father was a Seattle cop and his mother was a homemaker, and they got divorced when he was very young. So he didn't marry until he was 32. He waited until he found the right person because he saw what a broken home did to him."

Mr. Scully spent his retirement years traveling with his wife, Kathleen, who died in 1998, as well as being active in his church and doing a variety of volunteer work.

He is survived by sons Greg and Mike Scully, both of Seattle; John Scully, of Washington, D.C.; and Paul Scully, of Lake Stevens, as well as three grandchildren.

Funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church, 3218 W. Barrett St., Seattle. In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be sent to Senior Services of Seattle, 2208 Second Ave., Seattle, WA 98121.

Mark Rahner: 206-464-8259 or mrahner@seattletimes.com