Courtesy of Phil Wolff[?]Born: July 18, 1898
Died: May 30, 1964
Married:
Children:
Chiefly known as a photographer, Edward L. Gockeler published landscape shots in Vermont Life magazine and at least one of "The Chapel at Trudeau in mid-February" in the Syracuse Sunday Post-Standard (undated clipping). He had a darkroom in the attic of the Saranac Laboratory. He lived at 69 Park Avenue.
Lake Placid News, October 27, 1939
Gockeler 's Prize Photo Now at Radio City
The photograph of a farm scene, with which Edward L. Gockeler, of Saranac Lake won a first prize in the fifth week of this year's annual New York Herald Tribune amateur photographic contest, will go on exhibition in the lounge of the Radio City Music Hall, in New York city, on Thursday morning, Nov. 2, to remain there for at least a month. The local snapshot will be shown along with the other Herald Tribune first-prize winners in the 12 weeks competition, and the champions in the National Newspaper Snapshot contest, the latter group comprising several hundred prints, coming directly to the Music Hall from the National Geographic Society's Hall of Explorers in Washington, D. C, where the winners were selected in final competition a week ago, for cash prizes totaling $10,000.
The Music Hall show will be opened officially by William H. Jackson, 96-year-old photographer, still active in his chosen profession. Mr. Jackson, considered the dean of American photographers, was the first to take pictures of the Yellowstone country, largely as a result of which the Federal Government acquired the section for a national park.
The local picture is one of 48 prints which received cash prizes for first places last summer in the Herald Tribune's contest which attracted about 30,000 prints from amateurs in 36 states.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, November 13, 1952
Ten Years Ago
Edward L. Gockeler was awarded $25 as winner of 11th place in the 1942 Popular Photography contest. The winning color print was taken at Howling Dog Farms. It showed the late Felix Leser holding two South American macaws.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, September 29, 1955
Our Town
By EDDIE VOGT
When I was in the A&P yesterday, the manager called me aside and showed me the October issue of “Women's Day” (the A&P Magazine)—and I was impressed by the front cover—a rural scene with a flaming red tree in the fore- ground. He called my attention to the Index, which carried the notation that the “Cover Photograph was by Edward L. Gockeler” and gave me the information that Mr. Gockeler resided at 14 Kiwassa rd. and is employed at the Saranac Lake Laboratory.
Later I learned that the picture was snapped by Mr. Gockeler in the Lincoln Gap, near Bristol, in Vermont. Color photography has long been a hobby with him, and his work has also appeared on the cover of “This Week.”
Congratulations!
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 1, 1964
Edward L. Gockeler
Edward L. Gockeler, well known in this area for his photography, died sometime Saturday on a rural road near Reading, Vt., where he had been photographing scenery. Police said it appeared he had been putting equipment back into his car when stricken. The medical examiner said Mr. Gockeler died of a heart attack.
Mr. Gockeler, who lived at 14 Kiwassa Road, came to Saranac Lake in 1924 for his health. He was a professional photographer and also worked for the Saranac Lake Laboratories for 25 years. He was born July 18, 1898 in Washington, D. C, son of Charles H. and Doretta S. Gockeler.
An uncle, C. J. Gockeler of 11 S. Newark Avenue, Ventnor, N. J., survives.
Friends may call today at the Fortune Funeral Home where a funeral service will be hold this evening at 7:30 with the Rev. Alexander J. Morrison, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, officiating. The Rev. George T. Davis will conduct the burial service Tuesday at Beachwood Cemetery in New Rochelle.
"They're the staff of the Saranac Laboratory. Desiring to take their place in the world despite the handicap of tuberculosis, they have become research workers, whose honest and often spectacular attainments are internationally known.
"They are quietly at work on the research problem of tuberculosis and of silicosis and other dust diseases. They are quietly proving, also, though they're unaware of it, that Saranac Lake is an A-No. 1 spot for rehabilitation of the patient.
"They've all had tuberculosis. They're united in their interest in its care and cure. Not doctors of medicine, they all see in laboratory work a way of further defeating a disease which each day, through their efforts, grows less formidable.
"They're largely self-taught, though as one learns his profession, he gives his help to the next. . . .
"Another is Edward L. Gockler [sic], a former newspaperman and expert photographer, who is now using his photographic skill in assisting Mr. McCrum. Slated for the regular staff next year, he is also of great help to Dr. Esper Larsen 3rd, who is preparing suspensions of all kinds of materials for injection into animals." 1 . . .
"Dr. Gardner pointed out that it was one of the pet theories of Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau, founder of the laboratory, that a place should be provided for medical and research men to work while getting back on their feet after a bout with tuberculosis.
"The laboratory is that place, and in helping to direct the lives of many, it has added a great deal to the scientific knowledge of tuberculosis and other subjects." #
More can be found on pages 74-75 of Cure Cottages of Saranac Lake by Philip L. Gallos.
A photograph of the Saranac Lake Red Sox by Edward Gockeler, undated
Historic Saranac Lake collection.
Comments
Footnotes
1. From: “They Rebuild Men” by Eleanor Dayton. Partial transcription from a partial photocopy, page 10, source unknown [possibly The Guild News or the Adirondack Daily Enterprise], apparently 1941.
