Rhinedale (Dale) Rooks was born in 1917 in Grand Rapids, MI and died of cancer in 1954 in Grand Rapids. Albertus Rooks, Dale’s father, was former Principal of the Literary program at Calvin College from 1900 to 1918, and later named as the first Dean of college, a position he held from 1918-1942. His mother was Grace (Oostening) Rooks. Dale Rooks had two brothers, Marius and Corbyn Rooks. Marius worked with Dale in his Grand Rapids photography company, and Corbyn (Corbin) was Vice president at Trane Corporation.
After graduating from Grand Rapids Christian High School, Dale went to Calvin College where he worked for the Calvin College Yearbook Annual Prism. Dale graduated in 1938 and picked up work as a news photographer for the Muskegon Chronicle. His skill as a news and documentary photographer then took him across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee, WI, to work for the Milwaukee Journal. In 1940 he then moved to Kent, OH to teach at Kent University in the Journalism department. Two years later (1942) Dale moved to New York City for work as a feature photographer for the newspaper, PM.
Dale’s focus shifted to combat photography when he joined the US Coast Guard in 1944 and for two years was deployed in and around the Mediterranean taking photos aboard the USC Dwayne, the French Riviera, and Italy. He was chief photographer to the Admiral and Photo editor for the monthly newspaper the Phibber. After working with the Coast Guard, he joined LOOK magazine as staff photographer.
Dale Rooks moved back to Grand Rapids in 1947 to start his own business and to be a freelance photographer. He married Sally (Leenstra) Rooks and had three children; Jan, Daryll, and Dalene. During this time Dale authored the book “Everybody’s Photo Course” and did the posed animal photography for “Three Little Bunnies” and “Three Little Puppies”, children’s books written by Ruth Dixon and published by Rand McNally as Famous Elf Books in 1950 and 1951.
Dale’s photographs were featured in magazines such as Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, House & Garden, House Beautiful, LIFE, U.S. Camera, Fortune, Science Illustrated, Flying, and the newspaper The New York Times. Dale Rooks is most famous for his furniture photography and his special effects photography. As a commercial photographer, Dale worked extensively with the Grand Rapids furniture manufacturers. A large segment of the furniture marketing images used in brochures, catalogs and major magazines at the time were produced by Dale.
Everybody’s Photo Course
One of the prominent works completed by Dale was a US Camera “How to do it” book titled “Everybody’s Photo Course – 25 Simple Lessons in Picture Taking”. This book, a compilation of photography lessons by Dale Rooks published in U.S. Camera magazine, came out in hard cover in 1945. The book was republished in 1954 as a paperback. Dale’s wife Sally, and son, Jan, appear in several pictures.
U S Camera Photo Course Forward (Hard Cover):
U. S. Camera magazine began its simplified photo course, the editors little realized how popular a feature they were introducing. Nothing in the magazine has created more interest than this series.
This book is the inevitable outgrowth. Now in its second edition, it has been completely revised and five additional lessons which have appeared in U. S. CAMERA magazine since the first printing, now exhausted, have been included. In its enlarged form, Everybody’s Photo Course is a truly comprehensive pocket manual.
Most of the work in the photo course was done by Dale Rooks, associate editor of the U. S. CAMERA. Dale Rooks is now overseas as a Coast Guard photographer. His past experience on the photo staff of The Milwaukee Journal and PM, as well as his teaching experience at Kent College, OH, made him the ideal choice to supervise this pictorial photography course. (End of Forward)
The first book, published in 1944, had 15 lessons, the second (1945) had 20 and the 1954 issue had 25 lessons. Since the 1954 photo book was published, many more editions were published up to 1966 and 67 editions.
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