Paul Vathis, 77; Associated Press Photographer Won Pulitzer Prize

Paul Vathis, whose 56 years as an Associated Press photographer included a Pulitzer Prize for his pensive picture of then-President Kennedy and former President Eisenhower walking together at Camp David after the Bay of Pigs invasion, died Tuesday. He was 77.

Vathis died in his sleep at his Mechanicsburg, Pa., home.

From the AP bureau in Harrisburg, Pa., where he spent most of his career, Vathis built a national reputation for his skill with a lens, his instinct for news and his boundless energy.

In addition to his prize-winning shot of Kennedy and Eisenhower, Vathis provided the only newspaper photos of Wilt Chamberlain’s history-making 100-point NBA basketball game in 1962. He had gone to the game as a spectator, taking his son as a 10th birthday present.

Vathis photographed the 1987 news conference suicide of then-Pennsylvania Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer after he was convicted of taking a bribe. In 1979, he covered the Three Mile Island nuclear power accident.

One of eight children of Greek immigrant parents, Vathis was born in the northeastern Pennsylvania town of Mauch Chunk, since renamed Jim Thorpe.

A World War II Marine combat veteran, his introduction to photography consisted of sitting in the rear gunner’s seat of a dive bomber and shooting pictures of bomb damage on caves where Japanese soldiers were hiding.

Vathis began his AP career in Philadelphia in 1946 and also worked in the Pittsburgh bureau before moving to Harrisburg in 1952.

He was scolded by Kennedy’s press secretary for shooting his Pulitzer-winning picture on that April day in 1961 after the president’s handlers had declared the photo opportunity over. The picture shows Kennedy and Eisenhower absorbed in conversation, their backs to the camera, as they walk on a path.

Vathis is survived by his wife, Barbara, their son and two daughters, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.