{"id":9542,"date":"2014-01-06T17:35:57","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T17:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=9542"},"modified":"2014-01-06T17:43:30","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T17:43:30","slug":"all-hail-to-the-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=9542","title":{"rendered":"All Hail to the Chief!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u00a9 Sam Garcia 2013<\/p>\n

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Today is a very special day in the photography industry, a legend is retiring! \u00a0Bill 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! \u00a0Bill Pekala joined Nikon almost 40 years ago, and very soon became the head of NPS, (Nikon Professional Services). \u00a0Bill set the standard for the entire industry on how to build and maintain a professional support organization. \u00a0Thousands and thousands of photographers have benefited from the division of Nikon that Bill built almost from the ground up! \u00a0NPS was in it’s fledgling stages when Bill took over. \u00a0He 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! \u00a0He also had legendary shooters and teachers like \u00a0Stanley Menscher, and Bob Caruthers to lean on. \u00a0But then, he also hired me, so nobody’s perfect!<\/p>\n

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Bill was a gifted Nikon School instructor and very \u00a0talented 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. \u00a0Though capable young talent stands in the wings, to take the helm, there will never be another Bill Pekala. \u00a0Bill ran NPS in such a way that the thousands of NPS members could count on him and the departments assistance. \u00a0The extraordinary things that have been done to keep the pros shooting would be a thousand blog entries! \u00a0My memories of working with Bill are different, he was my boss, but still my friend. \u00a0My relationship with Bill went all the way back to his earliest days at Nikon. \u00a0We met at a Nikon school where he was teaching, \u00a0and 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.<\/p>\n

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Bill has been a superb asset to many shooters, but a real friend to me. \u00a0It was a great pleasure to spend the last 11 years of full time employment in the world of photography, working with him at Nikon. \u00a0Bill opened the door to many, many friendships in the industry and especially at Nikon that might otherwise not been available to me. \u00a0Bill made my photographic life infinitely better because of his many kindnesses, and the sharing of his vast expereince.<\/p>\n

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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!!!<\/p>\n

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All Hail to the Chief!<\/p>\n

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Blessings,<\/p>\n

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the pilgrim<\/p>\n

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P.S. \u00a0Thanks to my friend Sam Garcia for sharing his great portrait of Bill for my blog entry. \u00a0It was Bill’s exposing me to artists like Sam that has made my photographic life all the richer!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a9 Sam Garcia 2013   Today is a very special day in the photography industry, a legend is retiring! \u00a0Bill 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! \u00a0Bill Pekala joined Nikon almost 40 years ago, and very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9542"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9545,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9542\/revisions\/9545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}