Chick Harrity has been a working photojournalist for over 60 years. His interest in news photography was sparked by an 11th grade Journalism course taught by a moonlighting Reading Times reporter, Bill Bernheart. One of the requirements was working 10 hours at the Times under the tutelage of Chief Photographer Clifford Yeich. He wound up spending much more time at the paper over the next two years and while covering the schools football and basketball games for the high school newspaper he wound up having many photos published in the Times. Upon graduation he was offered a job by both the morning and evening papers in town but chose to stay with Yeich, who became his mentor, at the morning Times. Harrity wound up staying for 9 years learning the profession before leaving for a job with the Associated Press in New York.