Our Founder, Harry Trask, started his photographic career in 1951 when he was promoted from the Mailroom at the Boston Herald-Traveler, where he had worked since 1944. Upon attaining this position as Staff Photographer at Boston's afternoon paper, he attended classes at the now-defunct Eastern School of Photography.
Harry is best known as the 1957 recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in Photojournalism, the highest honor in his chosen profession, for his photo sequence of the sinking Andrea Doria. See the pictures and read the entire story here.
Photographer
Harry worked as a Staff Photographer at the Boston Traveler, which later became the Boston Herald-Traveler. He covered a number of beats as a member of the staff, but his favorite was probably being the Sports Photographer. In that role he was on a first-name basis with many of the Boston greats including Tom Yawkey and Red Auerbach. He won a number of additional awards for news photos, including...
(More)
Teacher
In 1973 the FCC forced the WHDH broadcasting group to divest its ownership of the Herald-Traveler, and WHDH-TV became Boston's WCVB-TV (Channel 5). The Herald was sold and merged with the Record- American (a Hearst paper), becoming the Herald-American.
Harry left the field of photojournalism to become a school teacher. His academic love was history, but he was initially hired to teach English at the Jeremiah-Burke High School in Dorchester, MA. It wasn't long before his superintendent discovered ...
After retiring from teaching in 1990, Harry went to work with his son Mark at Trask Tackle in North Scituate. A little secret that none of the customers actually knew: he had never been fishing in his life!
But after a few years of working the shop he became quite passionate and skilled at his fishing, just as he had been with his cameras.
Husband
Harry grew up in Roxbury, MA, and in 1955 he married Joan Mueller of Wollaston, MA. At the time, she was working as the Assistant to the Personnel Director at the Herald-Traveler Corp. and they had become acquainted on a company ski trip.
In 1957, they used the prize money from the Pulitzer as part of the down payment to buy a home...
Harry was a devoted father who was often seen pointing a camera at one or more of his offspring. The annual family slideshow was a happy tradition for the kids.
When Matt was a teenager, he expressed an interest in using the small darkroom in the cellar, and Harry agreed to teach ...
