Bill Lynch: Photographer Dick O’Neil ‘captured’ Sonoma

There’s no monument or building named in his memory but for several decades between 1945 and the 1980s, Sonoma photographer Richard O’Neil provided precious memories for thousands of Sonomans, including every graduate of Sonoma Valley High School.

He was our high school’s yearbook photographer and took photos at most local wedding and anniversary celebrations during that time. He also recorded in vivid black and white many other memorable local scenes and happenings. Many appeared in the Sonoma Index-Tribune.

Dick O’Neil’s photos are still part of many local scrapbooks or framed and prominently display on the shelves of longtime Sonomans.

His studio was located directly across from the Index-Tribune offices on West Napa Street (where Tasca Tasca tapas restaurant is today). He and my dad were close friends. In fact, it was Dick who tutored my father in the art of photography.

Dad and Dick also had a business relationship and many of the best photos on the I-T’s front pages and sports pages were taken when he was acting as the I-T’s stringer/photographer on assignment.

In those days, the photos he submitted were black and white glossy, 8-by-10 prints, which we then put through a machine that made engravings for our letterpress. Later, when we switched to offset, the photos were converted to half-tone negatives. In most cases the originals went back to him, although my dad kept a few, which I found recently.

One of the shots that my dad saved was a large glossy print of a spaghetti-eating jackrabbit. The wild hare belonged to Claudia Clerici, daughter of Lee Clerici, who owned and operated a service station at the corner of Broadway and MacArthur Street in Sonoma.

Dick’s photo made national news in January of 1958 when it appeared in a full-page spread in Life magazine.

Dick died in 1987, and I fear that most of his work is scattered or lost. Perhaps a local curator could send out a request to borrow some of Dick’s best shots for a special local showing of his work during his more than four decades here. It would be a true delight.