Lawrence Madison

SALISBURY — Lawrence Madison, 95, of Norfolk and Salisbury, formerly of Scarsdale, N.Y., died April 3, 2009, from heart failure, secondary to dementia.

Mr. Madison spent his working life as a still photographer and filmmaker.  He grew up in State College, Pa. After graduating from Penn State University in 1935, he went to New York City to start a career as a commercial still photographer. As war threatened, he was recruited as a cinematographer by Willard Van Dyke, one of the pioneers of American documentary film, who had been appointed the head of the Office of War Information’s (OWI) overseas film unit.  

Madison spent the war years making documentary films for OWI and the Army Signal corps (under Frank Capra), that were sent abroad as public relations for the United States. He was the cinematographer on the acclaimed “The Townâ€� (1944) directed by Josef Von Sternberg; directed “Tanglewood Storyâ€� (1947), photographed by Boris Kaufman, featuring the conductor Serge Koussevitzky and his prize student, Leonard Bernstein; and directed and photographed “The Cummington Storyâ€� (1945) with music by Aaron Copland, about a group of French war refugees who, with difficulty, are integrated into a small New England town. It is considered one of the best of the OWI’s 50-odd films.    

Following the war, Madison co-founded MPO Productions in New York City, one of the first film companies dedicated to making corporate sponsored films. Pan American Airlines, Ford Motor Company, Monsanto, American Cyanamid, Union Carbide were some of his early clients; and later, television commercials.

He quickly became known for his talent at making nature and wildlife films. Many films that he produced, photographed or directed won numerous prizes at non-theatrical film festivals. Among them were “The American Road,� “Out of the North,� “The American Cowboy,� “Bay at the Moon,� “The World That Nature Forgot,� “A Decision for Chemistry� and “As Tall as the Mountains.�

On Madison’s retirement in 1981, he and his wife, Margaret (Kinsloe) Madison, moved from Scarsdale, becoming permanent residents of their summer home on Doolittle Lake in Norfolk — a house that he, his wife and his two young sons had built by hand in the summer of 1955. There he renewed old passions, becoming a renowned fly-fisherman, talented furniture builder, expert golfer and an avid listener of classical music.  

He also worked tirelessly at managing and improving the ecology of the Doolittle Woods. And he returned to his first love, still photography.  In 1988, Harry N. Abrams published an acclaimed coffee-table book of his photographs, “Trout River,â€� with text by Nick Lyons.

His wife, Margaret, passed away in 2003, after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.  

He is survived by two sons, Lawrence K. Madison of New York and Alan Madison of Chatham, N.Y., and Taos, N.M.; four grandchildren, Emily, Christopher, Eliza and Matthew; his daughters-in-law, Sandra Madison and Sarah Lang; and five nieces and nephews.  

There will be a memorial service on Sunday, May 31, 11 a.m. at Noble Horizons. The family requests that donations in his memory be made to Noble Horizons.

Arrangements are under the care of the Kenny Funeral Home in Sharon.