Mary Lou Estabrook was a very active and longtime member of The Housatonic Camera Club.
My wife, Dorothy and I, had known her since the late 1980s, and were members together in the camera club from about 1989.
Mary Lou favored black-and-white film, but when traveling with Bob to all corners of the world she shot mostly color slides. From these slides she would create slide shows. Bob would then address the slides.
Their programs were not limited in any way to the camera club but to many venues, and they always attracted a full house. They were very popular and informative.
Mary Lou was as proficient in The Lakeville Journal darkroom as she was behind the lens. She had an artist’s eye for composition and subject matter.
Humor played its part also.
She was a true professional, entering framed prints in our club salons as well as her own private salons.
There was no one more enthusiastic about photography and our club. She was always interested in what others had to say. She never stopped learning and was the last to leave on meeting nights. Bob brought her to our March meeting in a wheelchair and a smile; always a smile.
Mary Lou Estabrook has touched us all.
— Ian McCunn, Housatonic Camera Club, president, 1994 to 1996, and newsletter editor, Sept. 1995 to Sept. 2005
