OAKLAND, CA (July 11, 2008) – When Oakland Tribune photojournalist Ron Riesterer retired after a 50-year career at the newspaper, the Contra Costa Times did a multimedia tribute to the Bay Area legend and his photographs.
The piece, produced by Jane Tyska, interviews Riesterer and many of those who worked for him and with him during the five decades he covered news and sports in northern California.
Riesterer started his career using large format view cameras and saw photography evolve through 35mm to digital while he photographed three NFL Super Bowls, five MLB World Series, celebrities and every American president from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush. And Riesterer and the staff of the Oakland Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for their coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake.
For the last decade of his career Riesterer has been the director of photography for the Bay Area News Group's East Bay chain of newspapers. He started at the Tribune in 1958 as a copy boy and two years later he was a staff photographer. His first assignment was photographing presidential candidate John F. Kennedy who was campaigning in Oakland on a flatbed truck.
At 69, Riesterer told the Contra Costa Times that he hopes to have more time to play his favorite pastime, golf, and to go fishing.
