SEATTLE - He was one of us from the very beginning of KOMO TV in 1953.

And we will miss him.

Pioneering KOMO News photographer Howard Ramaley died Monday evening.  He was 84.

His eye glued to a camera, editing film or in the thick of every story, Howard was KOMO News. 

But Howard almost never made it to KOMO.

Born in Yakima, Wash. on March 27th 1922,  Howard demonstrated a spirit which would serve him well during 33 rough and tumble years in television. He was not expected to survive birth, and at just four years old he had small pox and survived.

Landing on Utah Beach on D-Day, he nearly drowned carrying 40 pounds of explosives ashore.  "My job was to pick up the mines, blow a hole in the seawall, and get roads through the seawall and off the beach," Howard said in a 1984 interview.

In the early 50's, KOMO News was just four guys. One of them a kid named Keith Jackson who would grow up to become an ABC sports legend.

In 1958, Howard and Keith Jackson went where few journalists ever had -- to the Soviet Union.  The Husky rowing crew was racing the Russian team.

It was a tough assignment.  The Russians confiscated Howard's camera gear at the airport. They returned to the airport the next day with their guide, who informed the customs official she was interfering with international politics. The cameras were released.

The Russians wanted coverage of the race because they planned to win. What the Russian government did not want, however, were camera crews taking pictures of schools, colleges, historical sites, or any other facility without the assigned government guide.

Howard, joined by the late Seattle Times Sports editor George Myers, decided to ditch the guide and strike out on their own.

A suspicious Russian woman saw them filming in an alley and reported them to the authorities.

They were quickly arrested and interrogated for 45 minutes.  Unsure if they were facing police or the KGB, Howard and George struggled to find a way to communicate with their captors.

Just when things looked grim, Meyers, who spoke German, found that one of the officers spoke German also. Finally they were released.

But Howard and Keith got their story.   Howard's film was played back on local televisions with Keith's voice recounting the race:  "Huskies lead by four and a half lengths and they are over the finish line," Keith narrated. "Washington has won!"

The first ever American sports victory on Russian soil.

Howard actually helped launch two television stations in Seattle.

When channel 13 in Tacoma, then known by the call letters KMO, began broadcasting in the summer of 1953, Howard was using  a 4x5 Speed Grafic still camera to shoot news. He then moved north to Seattle, joining KOMO television news in December of 1953 when the station began broadcasting.

He was always in the thick of the stories he covered. He talked of covering a morning bank robbery at Seafirst. He was inside the bank shooting film of the investigation when Joshua Green, son of the founding family, came over, said hello and shook his hand.

He was called from home on May 8, 1968 when the ferry Kaleetan rammed Coleman dock, damaging seven cars. Howard was on the car deck working close to the damage when he slipped on spilled transmission oil, breaking three ribs.

Once, while covering an accident on Interstate 5, he tore an Achilles tendon while climbing a steep hill for a wide shot.

But, it was a time-lapse shot that became one of Howard's most memorable shoots. 

When construction began on the Space Needle in April of 1961 for the World's Fair, Howard saw a unique opportunity. Blending his still and movie shooting skills, he monitored the construction from the roof of the KOMO building across the street, taking a picture of the space needle each week with a Widelux still camera.

When the construction was complete in December of 1961, he took a single frame of each picture on film with a Bolex 16mm movie camera. In the resulting film clip, viewers saw the Space Needle take shape on TV in about 30 seconds.

Howard will be remembered in television circles for things the average viewer would never see.

In the first few years of television news, many pieces of camera gear were not available off the shelf. This was a challenge made for the "gadgeteer," amateur engineer, and inventor in Howard. He invented and built a body pod for the first heavy sound film cameras, which did not have shoulder pads built in as they do now.

Another challenge was shooting at night. Howard put together portable light batteries from scratch using surplus military cells and NiCad batteries. These batteries powered 500-watt lights. He built brackets to attach the lights to the cameras.

For years police and fire fighters asked KOMO photographers to turn on their lights at fires, accidents and crime scenes so that emergency workers could see in the dark.

Howard was there in our beginning.  He paved the way for so many of us, and helped us grow - from film to videotape, to helicopters, microwave transmitters and satellite live shots.

We'll miss him.  A lot.

Howard's legacy lives on at KOMO News.  His son, Stephen, has been a photographer here for more than 30 years.