Arizona Daily Star photographer Ron Medvescek retires after 38 years

Ron Medvescek began his career as a photojournalist at the Arizona Daily Star in 1981 after working in Indiana.

In 1984, Ron and reporter Carmen Duarte made the treacherous journey with refugees fleeing murder and chaos at the hands of the military, police and guerrillas fighting in Guatemala. They followed a group all the way to Tucson, where church groups sheltered them as part of the Sanctuary Movement.

Ron was a versatile visual thinker who spent 10 years as a page designer during his time at the Star, innovating with photos and text for the features section. He was also the photo coordinator for the Star's weekly Caliente entertainment tab, working with editors, writers and photographers to get fun, creative images. 

Ron's exploits in the Star's photo studio are well-known. His crowning achievement was recreating the the famous "dogs playing poker" painting for a Caliente story on pet adoptions. He had to photograph each dog separately in the photo studio over several weeks and place them at the poker table using Photoshop software.