Tesner remembered as 'great guy'

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Life In Focus: A photographer's journey

EDITORS NOTE: Record-Eagle photojournalist Doug Tesner was sick, badly so. A lifelong smoker, Tesner, 64, battled lung cancer that spread to his lymph nodes. His outlook was bleak, and he was in Munson Medical Center for treatment. Tesner and his wife, Peggy, agreed to allow Record-Eagle reporter Lindsay VanHulle and photojournalist Jan-Michael Stump to follow their journey, document his life and examine an illness that each year claims about 160,000 lives in this country.

"Patient awaits cancer's toll" is the first in this series. Other articles:

Related Photos

Peggy Tesner, the widow of Doug Tesner, receives the American Flag from VFW Post 2780 Jr. Vice-Commander Will Sutherland during funeral services Friday evening at Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home. Tesner was honored by family friends, as well as an honor guard from VFW Post 2780, who also addressed his coffin individually, fired a salute and played taps. Record-Eagle/JAN-MICHAEL STUMP
Doug Tesner Record-Eagle file photo

July 3, 2010

BY LINDSAY VANHULLE lvanhulle@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Wed Jul 07, 2010, 10:33 AM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY — Doug Tesner would have loved his military send-off. His family is sure of it.

They like to think he was watching them, smiling, as local veterans performed a rifle salute to "Taps" on Friday outside Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home in Traverse City.

And as sad as it was to say farewell to Tesner — a Record-Eagle photographer, a Navy veteran, a devoted family member — those who knew him believe he has a purpose in heaven.

"Guess who's going to be there taking pictures?" said the Rev. Jerry Micketti, of Christ the King Catholic Church in Williamsburg, who led Tesner's funeral service Friday.

It was a fitting tribute to Tesner, who died of lung cancer Tuesday at age 64. He had been a lifelong smoker.

Tesner met the pastor while on assignment this spring, and Micketti visited him after he was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma in February.

Tesner had said if he ever needed a priest, he wanted Micketti there.

"In some way, Doug Tesner touched our lives," Micketti told a gathering of his family, friends and colleagues. "We're not going to forget that."

His memory wasn't far from mind. Family members displayed his camera equipment and laptop computer — he was never far from either — on tables near his casket, and filled baskets with the Life Savers mints he popped daily when he quit smoking for more than a year.

His granddaughter, Christina Wilke, who lives in Houston, played two songs on her violin.

His legacy will live on, Micketti said, through the photographs he took and the images others captured of him.

"We see one of Doug's pictures, we're going to think of Doug," he said. "We look at that smile, and we think, 'Now what does he have up his sleeve besides his arm?'"

At the end of the service, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Cherryland Post 2780 saluted Tesner's casket and presented his wife, Peggy, with an American flag. A VFW chaplain thanked Tesner for being "a peacemaker."

"He would have been thrilled," Peggy said later.

Amid the sadness, there was laughter, as guests remembered Tesner in happier times.

Doug Bandos met Tesner while they were students in a Syracuse University journalism program for military service members. Tesner called Bandos in March after his diagnosis, and Bandos attended his funeral.

The two parted ways after the program ended and later reconnected.

"It took me a year to find him," Bandos said. "We just got back together."

Tesner's nephew, Bob Taylor, once accompanied him on a photo assignment at the National Cherry Festival. Taylor dabbles in photography.

"He was a great guy to talk about cameras with," Taylor said, adding that the military salute was perfect. "He got the respect he deserved."