Grover Zierle – A Life in Photos

When Monte and I got married in the late 1990s, his family came down from Oregon to attend the wedding and stayed for a few days. It was my first time meeting them. Our relationship had grown from regular telephone chats and from Monte’s sharing with me about his childhood in Deer Park, located in Napa County, California. His family were Seventh Day Adventist as well as vegetarians, thus they were self-sufficient in growing their own vegetables and fruit trees. Between the richness of the land in both California and Oregon, his family life was very different from my own life in Minnesota. To me, it seemed we stayed warm in the winter because of our heavy meat and potato diet. We were city dwellers, just the opposite of the rural home life Monte had enjoyed.

Feature Image above: Young Grover Zierle with his 1937 Chevy

Monte’s Grandfather, Grover Zierle, also spent part of his childhood on a sugar beet farm in Colorado. He knew how to plant a garden. In Napa County with its rich volcanic soil yielding a variety of fresh produce for them during the season, they learned to can much of the leftover harvests. I also loved hearing about their fruit trees. Monte would walk out his door to pick and eat from trees right in his own back yard. One fruit I had never heard of were persimmons. His grandmother used to make bread and cookies from the sweet fruit. This made me want to try them. Available in the Fall, we bought some persimmons from the store and placed them on the window sill until they were soft. When I took my first bite, I fell in love with the texture and sweet pumpkin-like taste. I envied his idyllic childhood in warm California; I felt an abundance and yet a simplicity of the beauty of nature they enjoyed in their own backyard. I vowed to put some of that magic into our lives in Arizona. I was also happy to learn that Monte’s grandfather enjoyed photography.

Kitchen View of Almond Trees 1943 © Grover Zierle

When we visited Monte’s family in Oregon a few years after our wedding, the time we spent there was magical. We stayed at their home in Sutherlin, Oregon. We were lucky to be there to help celebrate his grandfather’s 95th birthday. As Monte’s parents and his grandfather grew older, the care and maintenance of the land and the wine tourism prompted them to move to the Northwest. They still grew vegetables in a smaller garden and made their preserves. We spent time with them, remembering the past and talking about what we hoped for the future. We took long walks in the neighborhood where I took photos of the countryside. We were glad to get up there when we could, especially after Monte’s Dad was diagnosed with cancer. On our visit, when it came time to say goodbye, I saw tears streaming down Grandfather Grover’s whiskered cheeks. We gave them hugs; it was hard to let go. Grover was a kind and quiet man who moved slowly at his advanced age. He no longer took photos but wanted us to know he had a few cameras tucked away in storage if I wanted them. Grover was a delight. He and I spent time talking about organic gardening. He gave me one of his magazines on heirloom tomatoes. It inspired me to begin growing my own tomatoes in our backyard.

Monte’s beautiful family has always been dear to us. Sadly, over the years, we lost them one by one. Grover died from a brain aneurysm, his father Doyle passed from cancer, and his mother Elaine developed Alzheimer’s Disease and died in her sleep one night. The loss of these sensitive, kind people was hard for us but we have been buoyed by the pictorial record Grover left behind. We hold each photograph dear and enjoy going through his collection even now. His photographs have preserved so much for us and they reflect the tenderness, honesty and generosity of each family member. Each of them will always be there for us through Grover’s sensitive photographs.

A Special Gift

Upon the finalizing of the family estate, Monte’s sister, Marla, sent us six large boxes. Our home and storage capacity is not large, so we had our work cut out for us! As we began sorting what to keep and what to donate, we had moments when we wondered if we would ever get through everything. I truly believe that one should not throw away family keepsakes, but with such little space we made the decision to keep what mattered the most, including slides and negatives. Perusing the contents of each box, I was cautious at first, but when I saw how touched Monte was as he saw his own colorful baby book and the listing of each of his early birthdays, I knew we had to figure out how to keep everything. I loved listening to him share memories that the photographs brought back to him.

We were eventually both diving into the boxes. Our energy was high even into the last box that contained hundreds of color slides, envelopes stuffed with black and white negatives, and a wooden container the size of a shoe box. The wooden container was an exposure unit used to make photographic prints. These were Grover’s darkroom supplies. We uncovered cameras, color filters and film and print development manuals. He had resources to aid his photo making experience, self-taught by making mistakes and more photographs. We rented a slide projector and spent hours viewing the color slides. We realized that although we recognized Grover as a photographer, we had underestimated his interest and devotion to photography.

Napa Valley Springtime © Grover Zierle

Over many evenings after dinner, we fawned over stunning images of Northern California before it became known as “wine country.” Grover lived to take pictures of this beautiful area; his vision allowed us to imagine being a part of every photo! As we viewed a parade moving down the main street in town, we felt like we were there… watching from the sidewalk. The wonder of such moments kept us glued until we were too tired to look anymore. I gleaned from Grover an honest love of family, community and photography. Some of the best images he took are of Elaine, his daughter as a little girl, her marriage to Doyle, and his two grandchildren, Marla and Monte. Grover enjoyed a rich social life taking pictures of his young friends, exploring the hills, valleys and ocean side. The colors in the Kodachrome slides are vibrant. He photographed flower shows in San Francisco, captured waterfalls and landscapes in Yosemite, and his beloved home nestled in the foothills of Napa Valley.

Grover as Photographer

With all that I learned about Monte’s grandfather, I truly wanted to share his life and work with members of Arizona Photography Alliance. Grover Zierle was born in Colorado where his family grew sugar beets. He lost his father when he was 14. His mother remarried and as soon as Grover was old enough he moved to California where he married Lydia Gleffe. Lydia and Grover bought a house on two acres of land near her family in Deer Park, California. When Grover finished college, he worked as a lab technician at the local hospital. The young couple planted flower and vegetable gardens. Grover learned to use a camera and develop film. He documented the country side dotted with trees, rolling hills, and bodies of water. I believe Grover enjoyed being the “expert” behind the camera. He wanted his subjects to be the star of the show. Consequently. there are not many photographs of him.

Grover’s Contact Printer

He developed his own black and white film. Looking very portable the wooden box with a light bulb inside allowed him to make prints. He sent his color film out for slide development. It seems clear that Grover took care to get the scene the way he intended but many pictures were not sharp or had exposure issues. Monte does not recall seeing his grandfather using a tripod. It was clear from duplicate slide images that he worked to get a picture right. I truly hope he had someone to talk to about his issues, problems that he ran into, or ideas he had to get better results with his photographs. In so many images, he did get it right and those stand out as well as the blurry ones that seem to reveal his very own aesthetic. Hopefully he didn’t allow the thorniness of perfection to slow him down.

Grover must have been aware of Ansel Adam’s breathtaking style, as he shot some nice photos using a medium format camera. He recorded details from many waterfalls. I loved his varied scenes and the lights and shadows tell me he was not afraid to press the shutter at any time. I would describe his style as free form documentary with hints of Pictorialism. Maybe happy accidents? Some photographs were even comical, and I couldn’t make out what the subject was or maybe he took the picture in a hurry? I guess we are all guilty of shooting wildly at times. Above all, Grover seemed to understand that getting a reaction from your viewer is a positive thing. I would say… he succeeded!

Grover at 95