Photographer's work on display

The name Fettkether is a familiar one around the Sisters Library, and it is prominent during the month of November. The photographs of former Sisters resident Bill Fettkether, from his private collection, are on display in the computer room.

Fettkether's widow, Marianne, affectionately known to her friends as Fetty, has been a long-time library volunteer and member of the Friends of the Sisters Library (FOSL) Board. She loaned her late husband's photographs for the exhibit.

Born in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1926, to descendants of German immigrants, Bill came west to study at the Fred Archer School of Photography in Los Angeles. In 1946 he studied with renowned American photographer Ansel Adams, whose influence is evident in Fettkether's photographic images.

His work included color, black and white, and sepia images, but his preference was always for the classical black and silver image on white paper, which provides for the greatest range of expression.

Landscape subjects in nature figured prominently in Fettkether's photographs - mountains, plants, and sand sculptures. Fettkether captured the gnarly form of the bristlecone pine, known for its resilience to harsh weather and bad soils. It is one of the longest-lived life forms on earth and a prized subject for the camera's eye.

In 1960, Fettkether went to work as a photographer with the Technical Information Department at the Naval Weapons Center in China Lake, California, where he was employed until his retirement in 1986. The China Hat base was rather unique, having been opened following the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor in World War II. There were only a handful of military personnel on base, with mostly civilian chemists and physicists conducting the bulk of the work done there.

Most of his photography from the Weapons Center was classified, because they were developing the Sidewinder missile, the laser beam, and early versions of the jet-pack for individual propulsion.

His unclassified photographs were published in museum calendars, displayed annually in New York and Chicago, and honored with awards in numerous exhibitions. The Professional Photographers of America recognized him for the quality of his work with an honorary master of photography degree.

Mutual friends introduced Fettkether and his future wife on a blind date less than a year after Marianne's arrival from Germany for a two-year nursing exchange program. Bill persisted and on July 12, 1963, they were married in a chapel on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California. They and their two children, Claudia and David, lived on the China Hat base for 10 years and then in nearby Ridgecrest, California.

Fettkether had visited Central Oregon to ski in the early days of Mt. Bachelor, and in the early 1970s suggested the family consider buying land here. They purchased 10 acres located between Sisters and Bend, with an unobstructed view of the Cascade mountains, paying $25 a month until the balance was paid off.

In 1983, the house, which was designed by Fettkether, was built, complete with a full darkroom. Upon his retirement from the Weapons Center in 1986, they moved to their home in Central Oregon, where Marianne still resides, surrounded by Bill's photographs and the mountain view he enjoyed every morning.

In 2012, Marianne donated the handsome fused-glass circular window over the library's front doors in memory of her late husband. The richly colored light that shines through the window memorializes his lifetime of capturing light images with his camera.

"Bill gave me a good life. He was a very warm, knowledgeable person," Marianne shared. Nineteen years after his death following a stroke, she still misses him intensely.