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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man who has been trying to reunite 1950s era professional portraits with their rightful owners said Monday he had done so with a half dozen of the pictures.
Russ Van Wagenen said Monday afternoon he had identified several relatives — some living as far away as Wyoming and New Mexico.
His late father, Glen Van Wagenen, had stored the roughly two dozen portraits, which were originally taken at Biddulph-Stum Photographers in Provo in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Glen Van Wagenen managed the store at the time, his son said.
“Having lost parents this last year and lost my father a number of years ago, I know how much that means to have those memories close by,” he said. “(It was) obviously very satisfying for me to be able to share those out of something that sat in a box.”
Debbie Quigley and her husband, Keith, were among those to benefit from Van Wagenen’s search.
Quigley saw the original KSL story and reached out to Van Wagenen about portraits of her mother, Mary Christopherson Michaelis, and her mother’s friend, Jeri Sue Sundwall Charlier.
“He captured a moment in time that would have been lost without him, so I was deeply touched that he would go to the effort,” Quigley said.
Quigley said the portraits of Michaelis and Charlier were from the Miss Liberty Bell Pageant in Provo.
“I saw this and I teared up because I remember (my mother) looking like that as a little girl,” Quigley said. “It took me back to being a little girl when I was so fascinated with this beautiful woman who was my mom. And then being able to gift that to her on her birthday by finding that on KSL.com — it was a magical moment. It truly was.”
Van Wagenen said officials at Brigham Young University had reached out to him to offer help in identifying those in the portraits.
He also said the Utah State Historical Society expressed interest in cataloguing the pictures.
Van Wagenen said anyone who believes they know or are related to the people in the portraits should contact him via email at rvdub@hotmail.com.
