Retired UCO photography professor dies at 72

Associated Press

EDMOND Mon, May 12 2008

— EDMOND (AP) — Haskell O. “Woody” Gaddis, who established the photography program at the University of Central Oklahoma and was a mentor to an array of photographers, has died. He was 72.
Gaddis died Monday of cancer, family members confirmed.
“I think he really cared about the students and cared about their work,” said Edmond resident David McNeese of McNeese Fitzgerald Associates, a commercial photography company. “Even though you could get an A on the project, he’d push you to do more.”
Gaddis also worked as a photographer at the Tulsa Daily World, as the Tulsa World was known until 1977, from 1955 to 1963 and from 1966-69.
He was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame in 2005.
He owned a photo studio in Edmond from 1972-73.
Gaddis came to the University of Central Oklahoma in June 1969 when the school was called Central State Teachers College, said Mark Zimmerman, a photography instructor at the university and a former student.
“He built the whole program from scratch,” Zimmerman said.
Gaddis earned a journalism degree from the University of Tulsa in 1959, a master’s degree from then-Central State University in 1973 and a doctorate from Oklahoma State University in 1979.
His wife, Bea Gaddis, said her husband not only cared greatly for his students but he also had a good eye for color and design.
“He was very talented. I loved his photography,” she said.
Gaddis retired from UCO in 2007.
“Woody impacted a lot of people’s lives. If you talk to anyone in photography in Oklahoma, they know Woody Gaddis,” Zimmerman said.

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