Thank you all for your prayers and condolences of my Dad Rohn Engh passing. Its been about 5 weeks now, I have my moments but God and you all help me go through it all. Here is an article my mom Jeri.Rohn.Engh posted in their home town newspaper of The Sun. Its a good read: Rohn Engh took dozens of high school students under his wing at his barn office in Horse Creek for more than four decades, considering them competent mainstays in his photography newsletter-marketletter publishing business. Many of them, in turn, returned years later to report how they benefitted from the lessons and principles they learned at his side. Rohn was a widely published photographer, and quietly earned national renown in the stock photography community over the years, sharing his depth of research, constant seeking, ever-adapting insights, with photographers and making a difference in their lives. Says Ann Guilfoyle, New York publisher and director of AGPix, “Rohn had an enormous influence on the business of stock photography. Over his long career, he did more than anyone to help pry open the doors for new photographers. Through his books and articles, he almost defined the field of stock sales for those who wanted to sell their work.” And Jim Pickerell, Washington D.C. based consultant and Selling Stock newsletter founder, writes, “Rohn’s PhotoSource International published several daily and weekly market guides with advice for editorial stock photographers, including: PhotoDaily, PhotoLetter, PhotoStockNOTES and PhotoStockNOTES/Plus. In addition to advising photographers he provided on-line information to photobuyers, photo researchers and photo editors. “He authored the book sellphotos (updated in 2011), wrote countless articles and columns, and gave seminars nationwide. His first book for stock photographers, Sell & Re-Sell Your Photos, sold over 126,000 copies in five editions and is considered by both veteran photographers and newcomers to be the premiere desktop guide on marketing principles for the stock photographer.” One of Rohn’s subscribers and colleagues, Jim Cronk, said, “Aside from all Rohn did to help all of us as photographers, he will be remembered by me as a most kind and gracious man. Apart from his wonderful and time proven insights into photo marketing, Rohn touched lives in the sincerest of ways. He will be missed, but will be remembered so endearingly by so many.” In addition to his immersion in the photography world, Rohn lived a second life as a poet and an artist. He collected a portion of his poems in a 450-page volume entitled “Somethingness,” and his paintings hang in homes from the Twin Cities to Baltimore. Two of his large banner paintings grace the north side of the barn at the Baker Orchard in Centuria. One of his fondest memories was his one-man exhibit in Germany, when stationed there in the 1950’s in the Army. Rohn and his wife Jeri came to the Midwest from the East Coast, and settled in the country outside of Osceola in 1966. “We came out here on an assignment,” Jeri said, “Rohn photographing and me writing, and we just loved it here. We said this is the place to raise a family.” Rohn was president of Polk County ARC for many years. He organized a family softball tradition that occupied Sunday afternoons at the Horse Creek ‘Stadium’ for several summers, with soft drinks and beer donated by Gordy and Audrey Nelson at the Horse Creek store across the road. Rohn also established the Barn Art Fair, a yearly event that grew and moved to Star Prairie, then became the Park Art Fair in New Richmond. One of Rohn’s major projects along the way was creating, writing and illustrating a local weekly newspaper, The Apple River Journal, that sparked a loyal following, intermittent controversy, and much area conversation for several years. When Rohn and Jeri’s youngest son, Jim, developed seizures and neurological disabilities, they put their exhaustive research to find help for him into a non-profit organization they founded called ABC, Action for Brain-handicapped Children, publishing a national monthly newsletter, Expectations, for health and education professionals and parents. Their efforts caught the attention of the Today Show, where they were interviewed by Hugh Downs and Joe Garagiola. They were to be ‘on’ for 7 minutes; on the spot the producer expanded their segment to 20 minutes, and the network reported receipt of record numbers of phone calls and follow-up letters, reflecting the need of families for increased understanding and helpful programs for their children. Rohn grew up in the small town of Ocean City on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He graduated from Buckingham High School, where he focused on sports and the school newspaper, so after a year at the Maryland Institute of Art he decided he needed to bolster his education – he hitch-hiked to a top-rated prep school a friend had attended, Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, and talked his way into a full scholarship for two years. Returning to graduate from Maryland Institute with a degree in Fine Art, he then was drafted into the Army, and elected a three-year hitch so that he could go to language school, in French. The Army sent him to Germany. A bonus language stint came next, and Rohn ended his Army career fluent in both French and German. Rohn almost didn’t get to spend the 48 years he lived in the Osceola countryside he loved. Fifty-seven years ago, the raft was flung from side to side by the eddies of the river, as Rudi desperately tried to guide it downstream, praying to find a village. The river was the Niger, in Africa, and on the raft was Rudi’s fellow adventurer Rohn, delirious with a bleeding broken arm, suffered in a fall from a riverside cliff in an attempt to photograph a troop of baboons. They hadn’t seen any evidence of human habitation along the river in days. It was getting dark, and they had a rule to not travel on the raft in the dark, but Rudi kept on, hoping to spot a light on shore. As it happened, that saved Rohn’s life, since the tiny medical outpost Rudi found from its light glimmering through the trees would have been hidden from them in daylight. The one medical intern stationed there patched Rohn up, and a jungle path supply truck in the early morning saw Rohn back to the river town of Niamey and its small hospital. Rohn and Rudi, a German fellow-traveler, had met after Rohn got his Army discharge in Europe, and teamed up to cross Europe and the Sahara, traveling on motor scooters as troubadours playing their guitars and singing for their supper, and to build a raft to float down the Niger. Now the serendipity that Rohn attracted all his life kicked into action. Needing to get home to Maryland to mend, with Rudi heading for the coast to get a freighter for the States, Rohn was at a loss as to how to find the money to fly home. He was talking with a Frenchman in Niamey who worked for the Texaco outpost there – and this man, a perfect stranger, was silent for a moment, then took out his checkbook and gave Rohn $500. “It’s Christmastime, after all,” he said (in French). As soon as Rohn got home he was able to send his benefactor the repayment, from funds from the beach umbrella business he had established as a teenager, and that he still operated, with the help of his brother in Ocean City. Rohn joined Rudi when he reached the U.S., and they gave programs at colleges showing the films they had taken of their travels and singing folksongs they had learned in each country. They were asked to join President Eisenhower’s People-to-People Program to give concerts across the county, and they were featured in the Saturday Evening Post. Jeri, Rohn’s future wife, happened to read the article, they met, she joined up as trip journalist for the next leg of the journey to Central America, and the rest is history. (Again, the serendipity – Jeri had written Rohn a letter, mailed it to Ocean City with no address except for the sketch of a guitar flying at the back of a motor scooter. Rohn’s brother happened to work at the post office – spotted the letter and forwarded it to Rohn in New York as he was about to leave for points west on Eisenhower’s program, and Rohn and Jeri met at the 11th hour at the NY Public Library.) Years later, Rohn and Jeri were in France visiting Peter Johnston, a friend Jeri had met in Britain while spending her jr. year of college in Scotland. Peter was now married to a French girl, Clementine, and they lived in Brittany near Quimper. Seems Peter had been to a new doctor for a routine check-up and happened to tell the doctor about Rohn’s Niamey story. Peter’s doctor said, “That was my father!” He said, “It was amazing, because my father was always very cautious with money. But he loved to tell that story around Christmas, and always wondered what happened to that American.” Peter said, “My wife and I are about to visit with him!” That’s the way it was with Rohn, a man of many accomplishments, the greatest of which may have been his ability to forge connections with people of all ages, interests, and walks of life. Many who knew Rohn say his life serves as an inspiration to them as one who truly embraced life fully. He was learning and sharing right through to his final days. Someone wise once said, “The afterglow of a good and long relationship is like the light of a star that keeps pulsing long after the star itself has been extinguished. It may not make your wishes come true. But it can light your way.” That is one of the many gifts Rohn has given to his wife, Jeri, and sons Dan with Dan’s wife Mona, and Jim. Rohn passed away on August 4th, 2014, two months shy of his 85th birthday, of a sudden onset of severe pneumonia and complications, which took him away in a week. Burial will be at a later time at Wagon Landing Cemetery. There will be a celebration of Rohn’s life next spring in Ocean City, Maryland. The family request that if you wish to remember Rohn in some way, may it be something close to your heart, and according to your faith and tradition.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 00:20:02 +0000
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