All Hail to the Chief!

© Sam Garcia 2013

Today is a very special day in the photography industry, a legend is retiring!  Bill Pekala is at the CES Show in Las Vegas at the Nikon area, please go by and shake his hand and say thanks my friend!  Bill Pekala joined Nikon almost 40 years ago, and very soon became the head of NPS, (Nikon Professional Services).  Bill set the standard for the entire industry on how to build and maintain a professional support organization.  Thousands and thousands of photographers have benefited from the division of Nikon that Bill built almost from the ground up!  NPS was in it’s fledgling stages when Bill took over.  He assembled a team that became the envy of the industry, with such hires as Scott Frier (for ten years the chief underwater still photographer for Jacques Cousteau on the Calypso!), Fred Sisson, (Award winning photojournalist and legendary Nikon school instructor), Scott Andrews, (the most celebrated rocket photographer in NASA history), Mark Kettenhofen, (two times Military Photographer of the Year), Sam Garcia, (legendary speaker, teacher and photographer in New York), Ron Tanawaki, (one of the leading forensic photography experts in America), and the list goes on!  He also had legendary shooters and teachers like  Stanley Menscher, and Bob Caruthers to lean on.  But then, he also hired me, so nobody’s perfect!

Bill was a gifted Nikon School instructor and very  talented photographer in his own right, but that is not why I will be sad for the thousands of NPS members that he is retiring after the CES show.  Though capable young talent stands in the wings, to take the helm, there will never be another Bill Pekala.  Bill ran NPS in such a way that the thousands of NPS members could count on him and the departments assistance.  The extraordinary things that have been done to keep the pros shooting would be a thousand blog entries!  My memories of working with Bill are different, he was my boss, but still my friend.  My relationship with Bill went all the way back to his earliest days at Nikon.  We met at a Nikon school where he was teaching,  and it was his, and Fred Sisson’s inspiration that led me into a lifetime of photography. Over those early years Bill and I became friends, and he did countless things to help me as I progressed through those early learning years.

Bill has been a superb asset to many shooters, but a real friend to me.  It was a great pleasure to spend the last 11 years of full time employment in the world of photography, working with him at Nikon.  Bill opened the door to many, many friendships in the industry and especially at Nikon that might otherwise not been available to me.  Bill made my photographic life infinitely better because of his many kindnesses, and the sharing of his vast expereince.

This week the industry looses a giant, and a whole new adventure starts for one of the best friends I’ve ever had, I wish you all the best Bill, you deserve it, you’ve earned it!!!

All Hail to the Chief!

Blessings,

the pilgrim

P.S.  Thanks to my friend Sam Garcia for sharing his great portrait of Bill for my blog entry.  It was Bill’s exposing me to artists like Sam that has made my photographic life all the richer!