A GOOD GUY DIED LAST NIGHT

by Bob Walsh

I am a serious amateur photographer and have been for 40+ years. There was a small bunch of us dinosaur film photographers associated with the program at Delta College here in Stockton. One of them was Kevin Chupp.

Kevin was a few years younger than me and had had some health issues lately. He was a diabetic and lost part of his leg a year or so back. He was having a lot of trouble adjusting to the artificial leg. We went out to lunch pretty often, and tried to get out to take photos every now and the, though with the indifferent winter weather it was not so easy. Also, I was moderately hurt in a car wreck earlier this month which slowed things down more than a little.

Kevin liked to travel and went on a couple of those windjammer type tall ship sailing cruises some years back. He even had the opportunity to crew for a bit. Some of his best photo work was in and around ships, though he did a fair bit of portrait photography as well.

He was also a bit of a foodie and turned me on to several decent restaurants in the greater Stockton area.

He died in his sleep at home last night, quite unexpectedly. He had a cardio evaluation less than ten days before. His mom found him in the morning in his arm chair. He was a good guy. I will miss him.