Kathy Willens Took My Job
I'm glad she did.
When photographer Jim Kerlin retired from a storied career with the Associated Press, I applied for his job. I’d worked a couple of times with Jim at Cape Canaveral for rocket launches and had heard all the stories about his ability to be the one photographer in the perfect spot for a rocket launch. Kerlin is one of NASA’s Chroniclers, a Roll of Honor for media representatives and public affairs officers who have facilitated the flow of information about NASA’s space program to the public. Everybody knew Kerlin, who began covering the Cape in 1956.
One of the stories told of Jim is there was an excellent reason that Neal Armstrong’s first words were garbled when he stepped on the moon. It was said at the time that a technical glitch caused the problem. It was revealed at Jim’s retirement party that Armstrong actually said, “It’s a small step for a man. Where the hell is Jim Kerlin?”
It didn’t feel right to apply for Jim’s job, to replace someone like Jim, but I applied.
I don’t remember when I first met Kathy Willens. It might have been at a University of Florida football or basketball game, a New York Yankees spring game, or perhaps the 1972 Republican National Convention I wrote about yesterday. She seemed to have always been around, working everything I did or everything I wished I was at. She was ever-present.
This was 1976, the Bicentennial year. Equal rights for women were a very emotional subject, and the deadline for passing the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution was quickly approaching. Newsrooms were typically divided into three departments: news, sports, and the women’s section. It wasn’t the Lifestyle section, Home section, or Family section. It was the Women’s section, staffed primarily by women.
The ERA may have been a frequent topic, but discussion followed traditional conservatism and departmental lines.
Kathy got the Miami photographer job.
Several of my contemporaries at the Ft. Lauderdale News suggested I was robbed and that I was the perfect person for the job, not Kathy. I had more experience with both wire services. I worked at two major state newspapers and was a university news photographer. My sports coverage was exemplary. My news sense was excellent. No one could match my daily feature hunts.
My friends were so wrong. I was the near-perfect person for the job.
Kathy Willens went on to prove that Hal Buell had made the right decision, the perfect decision, hiring her instead of me. Her 45-year career at the AP cemented the notion that women could excel at photojournalism. Her strengths paved the way for others who owe Kathy a debt for her steadfast dedication to photography and storytelling.
I was hired the next year.
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