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Monday, May 20, 2002

By Linda Wilson Fuoco, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Vernon E. Bachelder quit school in the 10th grade and took over the family photo finishing business when his father died. Filmet Color Laboratories Inc. grew and prospered thanks to the efforts of Mr. Bachelder, his mother and his sister.

Mr. Bachelder, 76, died of cancer yesterday at his Murrysville home, surrounded by Betty Hayes Bachelder, his wife of 53 years, and his family.

Mr. Bachelder grew up in Pittsburgh, and raised his own family in Monroeville and then Murrysville. His father, Vincent Bachelder, was born in Canada and moved to Pittsburgh in 1910 to set up a photo processing company in Homewood.

"They had a fire during World War II and lost everything," said Mr. Bachelder's son, Richard, "so dad became a commercial photographer. He was quite gifted with a camera and the company grew rapidly."

Mr. Bachelder traveled all over, entering coal mines with caged canaries used to detect deadly methane gas, "which made him start to think he was not in a very safe profession," Richard Bachelder said.

One day he was in a helicopter taking photographs when the engine quit and the pilot gave him instructions about when to jump into the river.

"Then he was sure he was not in a safe profession. He was married and had children," so he decided to get back into photo processing," Bachelder said.

He moved his business and his family into the third floor of a building in Wilkinsburg.

"There were tenants on the first and second floors. One of them started a fire and once again my father lost everything. But he was adaptable," his son said. "It was the 1950s and very few companies were doing color processing, so he did that."

In the 1960s and 1970s, he also developed a way to make giant prints -- 4 feet by 8 feet and larger -- and worked with an Ohio company, Morgan Adhesives, to develop a two-sided tape that could be used to mount large prints.

Mr. Bachelder did not have a patent on the process "and he never got rich off these innovations, but he did use them in his business," his son said.

Mr. Bachelder never did get his high school diploma, though he bought and read books throughout his life.

"When I got my college degree and wanted to come into the business, he told me he really didn't have a job for me," his son said with a chuckle. "We went on a weekend camping trip and I had to convince him that I could do the job."

By 1976, Filmet had grown to 20 employees. But in the early 1980s, Mr. Bachelder turned the business over to his children when he was diagnosed with colon cancer.

"The operation was successful, but when he recovered he said he had been running the business since he was young and it was time for the third generation to take over," Bachelder said.

When he retired, Mr. Bachelder "went back to his roots as an artist. He and my mother starting touring the United States in a motor home and he photographed everything," his son said.

Not content to merely take pictures himself, Mr. Bachelder opened his home to photography students.

"He didn't make any money at that, but he met many interesting people," his son said. He also wrote a book, "Let's Go for Adventure in Retirement," because he "wanted to excite people about the beauty of the world and the creativity that they have locked inside themselves."

Mr. Bachelder recently learned that the colon cancer he had beaten nearly two decades ago had returned and spread to his liver.

Mr. Bachelder was a member of the Westmoreland Conservancy and Newlonsburg Presbyterian Church in Murrysville and was a former member of the Swissvale Rotary Club.

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Bachelder is survived by another son, Gary Nelson Bachelder of Lancaster, a daughter, Denise Louise Dalbey of Murrysville, and 10 grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at Newlonsburg Presbyterian Church, followed by a reception in the fellowship hall. John T. Hart Funeral Home, 3103 Lillian Avenue, Murrysville, is handling arrangements.