Alfred Girard Pitzner ’54

Alfred Girard Pitzner ’54 passed away on December 1, 2020 in Kansas City, Missouri. He came to Hanover from the Leelanau School in Winnetka, Illinois, where he excelled both academically and athletically. At Dartmouth he majored in art, played football, took part in the Camera Club, and trained in the Air Force ROTC. He also began his lifelong love of the out-of-doors and the mountains with the Dartmouth Outing Club, ski patrol, and Ledyard Canoe Club. After graduation, while completing his military service, Al studied photography at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, earning a second bachelor’s in advertising design and photography at the Los Angles Art College Center of Design. He worked for Cessna Aircraft, Lear Jet, Beachcraft, Pizza Hut, Phillips 66 Petroleum, and Hallmark Cards. He opened Al Pitzner Photography in Wichita, Kansas, in 1969. Al later moved to Kansas City and set up a 10,000-square-foot advertising photo studio. Despite his busy career, he was careful not to neglect the ski slopes and the tennis courts. In the class 50th reunion book he wrote of the Dartmouth experience, “so special, so powerful a hand in one’s self-discovery…launching us into the universe of a thoughtful life; and John Sloan Dickey was with us all the way.” Al was predeceased by his wife of 40 years, Violet. He is survived by two children and their families.