Remembering Jonathan Goell, by Russ Fortier
Reading Time: 2 minutes
From Russ Fortier:Chris (Wenger) Goell texted me yesterday to tell me that Jonathan Goell died on September 7th. According to Chris, Jon had been in hospice, at home, and died quietly and peacefully.Some might remember Jon as the host of The Photo Show, a WGBH show that premiered in 1978 and was produced by Michael Rice and Bonnie Hammer. I was the director.As the show’s talent, Jon was not only a highly skilled photographer; he was also a true artist with a genuine enthusiasm for sharing his vast knowledge of the medium. After the show, he went on to teach photography and became a professor at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland.In addition to photography, Jon could draw really well, knew a few magic tricks, tap danced and was a sharp, humorous conversationalist.In all the time I knew him in Boston, he was never without a camera; his tag line for the series was “Take your camera everywhere because that’s where the pictures are.”When Chris and Jon visited Cornelia and me in Westport in 2015, he generously gave me one of his photographs. It hangs over my desk, a constant reminder of a gifted friend.
I worked at ‘GBH in the Traffic Dept from 1976 to 1980. When I married my wife Bobbi also in 1980 (no connection between the two events), both Jon and Chris came to our small wedding (40 people) at our house in Arlington. Jon took our wedding pictures. Other fellow employees present for the event were my sister-in-law Susan, and engineers Carol Hugentugler and Doug Devitt.
Wonderful remembrance!!!! So glad to hear hosts of TV shows were actually friends, friends who enjoyed each other and shared their life with the WGBH crews. Truly a great time in the history of WGBH.
Jon was my Editorial Photography teacher at the New England School of Photography in Boston the year I graduated in 1989. He gladly shared his talent and professionalism with good cheer, and I hope it stuck. I assisted him freelance a few times before he sadly left Boston for Baltimore. He was a lovely, creative addition to the world.