Elwood P. Smith, 91, Philadelphia Daily News photographer

"To many fans, the 1950 Phillies-Yankees World Series is nothing more than a few paragraphs in a baseball record book. To Elwood P. Smith, it is a vivid memory," the Philadelphia Daily News wrote in a 1979 appreciation of its award-winning staff photographer.

"He was part of it, working along the first-base line in Connie Mack Stadium.

"And Smitty, as his coworkers call him, has been at the scene of major sports events ever since."

On Tuesday, Jan. 25, Mr. Smith, 91, of Northeast Philadelphia, a Marine Corps aerial photographer during World War II, who became a legend for his expertise and longevity in Philadelphia journalism, died of colon cancer at Nazareth Hospital.

He retired in November 2005 when he was 86, but only, his wife, Anne, said, because the Daily News was offering buyouts to its staffers at a moment when the future of the paper was in doubt.

Only two weeks before his death, his wife said, "he had a stomachache" - after which the cancer was discovered and operated on.

That 1979 Daily News appreciation noted that "in 1974, the National Football League placed one of Smith's photos in the Hall of Fame." It did not state which photo.

"Elwood's most cherished picture, though, is the 'Moose Shuffle' - Andre Dupont's reaction after scoring a goal in 1975" for the Flyers.

"That shot earned Smitty awards from the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Press Photographers Associations."

In fact, most of the stories about Mr. Smith, clipped from print before the Daily News and The Inquirer began archiving stories in computer systems in the early 1980s, were about his prizewinning ways.

On Tuesday, Michael Days, who was the chief newsroom executive at the Daily News before becoming managing editor of The Inquirer this week, noted:

"Smitty was the ultimate charmer, the ultimate photographer, the ultimate chronicler of our times.

"And he did it all with great style for more than 50 years."

Michael Mercanti, director of photography for The Inquirer and the Daily News, was Mr. Smith's boss as executive photo editor at the Daily News from 1993 and a photographer alongside Mr. Smith for 15 years before that.

"Elwood was a true gentleman, a serious mentor to all the young photojournalists coming into the business," Mercanti said.

"He taught us all every facet of the job, and he did it from a thorough knowledge of his craft, and always with good humor and graciousness."

Mr. Smith grew up in South Philadelphia and attended South Philadelphia High School, his wife said.

Daily News personnel records show that Mr. Smith started there as an office boy in 1937 and became a copy boy in the photography department in 1939.

The records state that during World War II, he graduated from a Navy photo school in Pensacola, Fla., and from a photo course at Oregon State College.

After working at the Evening Bulletin for five years - when, perhaps, he shot the 1950 World Series - and at a photo studio, he was named to the Daily News photography payroll in 1955 and hired permanently Sept. 30, 1962.

One of the more touching comments about Mr. Smith came from those old paper clippings. It had to do with his compassion, not his photography.

On May 11, 1976, Daily News columnist Larry McMullen turned over his space to a reader.

"About eight years ago, my father and mother made the front page of the Daily News because the airplane my father was flying had some difficulty with the landing gear and was forced to circle Northeast Airport," Myrna Dukat wrote.

The plane landed safely, but the story still made the front page of the Daily News, with photography by Mr. Smith.

Years later, finding her copy of the story "very tattered and illegible," Dukat asked Mr. Smith for a keepsake.

"When I finished talking with him, I felt he was an old friend trying his hardest to please me," she wrote.

"He went to a lot of trouble looking in his old file trying to obtain the negative of the front-page picture of my father."

The negative had been lost, she wrote, but Mr. Smith told her he would send a front-page copy from the microfilm files.

"Losing a dear and wonderful father was a trying and sad experience," she wrote, "but with the kindness and interest showed to me by Mr. Smith, it really uplifted my spirits at a time that I desperately needed it."

Besides his wife, whom he married in December 1942, Mr. Smith is survived by a godson, Herbert B. Smith, and nieces and nephews.

There were no services.