John Metelsky, Club photography mainstay for 60 years, dies at 96
John Metelsky, a photographer member of the National Press Club for nearly 60 years, died Oct. 1 at the age of 96. Metelsky, whose colorful life ranged from work on a tugboat to photographing famous speakers at the Club, lived in Silver Spring, Md.
"John was a friendly, dedicated, professional photographer whose works are part of the permanent display of photos hanging on the Press Club's walls," said Marshall Cohen, founder of the Club's photography committee who worked with Metelsky on the Club's print newsletter The Record from the 1970s to the 1990s. "He always helpful and cooperative."
Cohen's comments were echoed by photographer Christy Bowe, who worked with Metelsky covering events at the Club and at public events around Washington. "John was a very kind man with a great sense of humor," she recalled. "He had such an interesting career and learned from every twist and turn of it."
When she was a new Club member, Bowe said Metelsky "took the time to patiently show me the ropes." She lauded his curiosity and adventurism and said he "used to always sign off with the words 'stay in focus.'"
While photography was his passion, Metelsky also worked as a writer and editor for the Record. Notables he photographed included Kirk Douglas, Ingrid Bergman, Hubert Humphrey, Anwar Sadat, Ted Kennedy, Donald Rumsfeld, Golda Meier, Henry Kissinger, Margaret Thatcher, John Glenn, Colin Powell, Sean Connery, Jane Fonda, George Clooney, Dolly Parton, and Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Metelsky was born in Bristol, Conn., and spoke Polish as well as English growing up in a working-class immigrant community during the Great Depression. He had a neighborhood paper route and worked in a bakery and laundry. A physical fitness advocate, Metelsky became a welterweight boxer, fighting a dozen bouts under the moniker Johnny Mac.
Intensely patriotic, he joined the U.S. Merchant Marine in early 1944 after leaving high school after his freshman year to gain maritime experience working on a tugboat. He serviced on several ships on risky missions to Europe and throughout the Mediterranean during World War II. On D-Day 1944, Metelsky was aboard an aviation fuel tanker out of England. In 2016, National Press Club American Legion Post 20 honored Metelsky as the Post's only Merchant Marine member. "I was just a kid," he recalled when presented with a large Merchant Marine flag. "I had no idea what I was getting into."
Metelsky stayed in the Merchant Marine after the war, visiting ports around the world. He served on a ship delivering weapons to South Korea during the Korean Conflict and, after returning to Connecticut in 1953, was drafted into the Army. He earned a high school diploma while in the Army at Fort Eustis, Newport News, Va., and moved to Washington after his discharge to earn a journalism degree from George Washington University under the GI Bill.
A young lady working in the registrar's office, Sonia Fay Seaton, caught his eye and they were married in 1963. In 1967, he earned a master's degree in communications at American University.
He joined the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) and for eight of his 38 years with the agency served as director of its press office. The adventurous Metelsky took a month leave in 1980 to work as a Merchant Marine aboard a ship in the eastern Mediterranean. As an AID photojournalist, he covered developments South and Central America and the Middle East. He received special recognition for crossing the Sahara Desert with a food relief convoy. He served for a year as president of the Federal Editors Association and retired from AID in 1996.
Survivors include his wife of 60 years, Sonia; sons Sundance and John Metelsky, and two grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 6, at Gasch's Funeral Home in Hyattsville, Md. Services will be on Saturday at the United Methodist Church in Glen Dale, Md., from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., with burial to follow at Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Brentwood, MD.