Larger than life and straight out of central casting, Michael Lipack ran the Daily News’ photo desk like everything was riding on just the right picture.
Because it was.
With a cigarette dangling from his lips, and suspenders stretching on both sides of his pot belly, Lipack could easily pass for J. Jonah Jameson in a Spider Man movie.
“He called everybody ‘kid,’” said Susan Watts, a former News photographer. “But you felt like you were the only one he called kid and it made you feel special.”
Lipack, 72, who died Wednesday from sepsis after a series of health problems, worked for nearly 40 years at The News, rising through the ranks to be head of the photo department at “New York’s Picture Newspaper.”
Lipack started at The News in 1970, when he was 18, picking up film from photographers in the field in his car before becoming a copy boy and later a staff photographer.
He later became deputy director of photography before taking over as director and running the whole show.
Watts said she remembers being as green as they come, sitting across from Lipack in the newsroom and looking for a job.
“I had this wild dream of being a newspaper photographer, and I had no idea how to get in the business,” Watts said.
But he liked her stuff, and gave her a chance, she said.
“He said, ‘It won’t make you rich but you’ll pay your rent,’” Watts recalled. “He gave me a shot. He gave everybody a shot if he saw something in you.”
Despite a gruff exterior that chased some would-be photographers away, Lipack changed the lives of many who stuck it out.
Those who did quickly learned that meeting Lipack’s high standard was good for the newspaper — and for them.
It wasn’t enough to come back with photos of a grieving family at a funeral, or a police car next to a stretched yellow crime scene tape. Lipack wanted something different, something unique.
“Most of the ones who did well will tell you that he made them think,” said Jo Barefoot, another former colleague. “He taught them how to be better. He took pride in how they each put their heart in it “
He even took his work home with him, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Lipack’s daughter Randi remembers stories she heard as a child, some of which never appeared in the newspaper.
But what she remembers more were trips to the newsroom that impressed the kids at her school.
“My dad would set up field trips,” she said. “It was a big deal. My teacher was so happy.”
Funeral services for Lipack will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Friday at Jerusalem Memorial Chapel on Hempstead Turnpike in Levittown, L.I.
Lipack leaves behind Randi, a son, Matthew, five grandchildren and Susan, his wife of nearly 50 years.
He also leaves behind three generations of photographers for whom the big picture took on a different meaning.
“He started the careers of generations of photographers and kept us to a standard that was so high,” Watts said. “Failure was never an option. He ruled that desk with a passionate ferocity that was unequaled. The Daily News was everything to him. He lived and breathed that paper. It was his lifeblood. It was his oxygen. It was how he survived.”
