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Grant Haller, P-I photographer who captured St. Helens eruption, dies at 72

Grant Haller, who worked from 1974 until 2009 at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, received multiple awards for his May 18, 1980 photograph of the Mount St. Helens eruption. Haller died July 26, 2017 at age 72. 

When the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a newspaper that had been around since 1863, was in its final days, a video camera was set up in the newsroom to record the recollections and the moments that made life under The Globe so memorable.

"Hi, my name's Grant Haller," the longest serving employee said. "I've been at the P-I for 32 years, 33 years. I'm a photographer."

Haller could have bragged about the stunning photograph of Mount St. Helens he captured from a fixed-wing propeller plane the day it erupted. He captured Barack Obama as a senator on the campaign trail, and a photo of Bill Clinton at the Pike Place Market that was so striking, White House staff called to get 50 copies.

When the Rolling Stones sold out the Kingdome, Haller’s images of Mick Jagger were splashed across the front page. After Edgar Martinez hit The Double to beat the Yankees in 1995, saving baseball in Seattle, Haller ran to the field and captured pitcher Randy Johnson wrapping Martinez in a bear hug.

He had thousands of moments to pick from during his time with the newsroom video camera. Instead, he lived in the moment.

“I guess the most I’ll miss out of the P-I is this great view of Elliott Bay,” Haller said with his soft voice before taking a swig from his coffee mug and staring into the sunset.

And that was exactly Grant: Recognizing the beauty in the places and people around him without making himself the center of attention.

When family announced his death on Facebook, hundreds of friends shared stories of the sincerity that made Haller one of the most beloved figures in the newspaper's 146-year history.

Haller, who died July 26 after battling a heart illness and interstitial lung disease, was 72.

“Grant was a great colleague and an endless source of philosophic observations that sometimes sounded a little weird, but when you thought about it later, you’d realize that he’s taken you down a peg in a soft and kind way,” friend Dick Clever wrote. “That especially worked with overly self-important management types.”

In 2000, when some of those management types tossed thousands of P-I negatives, friends said Haller and colleague Gilbert Arias rescued them from a dumpster death, driving them in a pickup truck to the Museum of History and Industry. Haller was part of a similar save in 1986, and those negatives included never-before published photos of Japanese-Americans being taken for internment in 1942, and the most requested photo from MOHAI's P-I collection: an image of two teens kissing during a city-wide blackout practice following the Pearl Harbor attack.

“There was no photographer who taught me more about the humanity and responsibility of journalism,” friend and former co-worker Angelo Bruscas wrote. “Grant always noticed the details I never would have experienced otherwise.”

Said former city councilwoman and co-worker Jean Godden: “He had to decide between being a reporter and being a photographer, but he never failed to tell us how to write a story – and he was always right.”

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Co-worker and former classmate Katherine White recalled Haller carrying a 4x5 box camera as a student at Queen Anne High School. He continued at the University of Washington, and before his career at the P-I he worked at The Seattle Times, and had stints at The Herald Everett, Sports Illustrated and Sport Magazine.

“That’s why I got into the business: to take pictures of something and present it to the public and say, ‘Hey, this is a neat picture.'

"I've always thought that when I went out on an assignment I was the eyes of 250,000 people," Haller said in 2009.

His Mount St. Helens photo traveled around the world, earning Haller less-than-deserved royalties but multiple awards, including a selection as the P-I's Picture of the Millennium by The Associated Press. Some say they see the face of God in the smoke and ash could. Haller later said it looked more like a goat or the P-I photo editor at the time.

The pilot that day, Salty Roark, was fined $10,000 for going too close to the erupting mountain. At one point, the four-seat plane flew through the ash plume and the engine sputtered.

"You P-I guys are fun to fly with because you aren't afraid to die," the pilot, who flew multiple trips to Mount St. Helens, once said.

In 2009 when a Seattle police officer was shot to death in the line of duty, one letter stood out to the department among hundreds they received.

I know this isn’t much, Haller wrote – money is a little short since I lost my job in March – but “I wanted to give something to show my outrage of the shooting. … Please add to the reward offered.”

“The department, the family continues to be overwhelmed,” Assistant Chief Jim Pugel said, holding the letter and check from Grant and speaking of the overall support.

When Nancy Reagan died in 2016, Haller posted a close-up photo he took of her lovingly looking at her husband during a Seattle campaign stop. She watched his every move, he recalled.

“I think she loved this guy a lot,” he wrote. “I hope they are together again. The picture is one of my favorites.”

After Mohammad Ali's death, Haller shared a moment he had with him in 1984 at SeaTac International Airport.

“He came along and stopped to talk with 6-year-old Dan Whitford,” Haller wrote. “They had a nice conversation and I was surprised that someone so famous would spend the time with this little guy. There were no ‘fake’ punches thrown or selfies made. Just a connection. Over the years I lost a lot of respect for professional athletes -- a subject for another time. But not for Muhammad Ali. Another of my heroes bites the dust. And I don't like it.”

In recent years, one of Haller's favorite subjects was his grandson, Miler Haller, who became one of the state's best distance runners at Edmonds Woodway High School and later Boise State University.

Former co-worker John Harris remembers being on a P-I assignment with Haller in the 1980s and stopping afterward in Lynnwood to watch Miler's dad, Pat, in a race for Lynnwood High, where he won two state championships.

“And he was so proud of his son,” Harris recalled.

Haller and his wife, Mary, had three children. Family wrote on Facebook that Haller was a beloved brother, uncle, grandfather and great-grandfather “and photojournalist to the end.” A memorial service is being planned.

When the P-I closed in 2009, Haller talked of how he was lucky. How it was a privilege to meet “an incredible number of nice people.” The city is going to lose a lot without the paper, he told the AP. But it wasn’t going to stop him from taking pictures.

 "You've got to make it when it happens," he said from behind his camera lens. "It never happens again.

“It just never happens again.”

Skip to the 4:24 mark to see Grant Haller's part in the P-I farewell video below: