Robert B. Stinnett

March 31, 1924 - November 6, 2018


Robert “Bob” Stinnett, a prize-winning Oakland Tribune photographer for decades, who was also known for his friendly demeanor, died Tuesday in San Jose at the age of 94.
During his Oakland Tribune career, which started while he was in high school and resumed again in 1948 after his military service and ended with his retirement in 1986, Stinnett took thousands of photographs on subjects ranging from crime and riots and disasters, to society affairs, civic events, celebrities and everyday folks.
In 1975, he and then-Tribune reporter Fred Garretson went to Vietnam to cover a mercy mission where as many orphans as possible were brought back to the United States on an Oakland-based airline.
He also occasionally wrote articles and served on the Alameda County grand jury in the mid-1960s.
One of his best known pictures, an award-winning shot titled “The Play,” was taken in 1982 at the California-Stanford Big Game football match-up.
Stinnett was standing behind the south end zone at Cal’s Memorial Stadium when Cal players completed a multi-lateral kickoff return, with the final lateral receiver Kevin Moen running into the end zone for a winning touchdown with no time on the clock through members of the Stanford band, who had prematurely gone on the field, thinking Stanford had won.

The picture, which gained national attention, showed Moen at the top of his leap, roaring in triumph with the football held high over his helmet about to land on a Stanford trombonist.
Retired veteran Tribune photographer Ron Riesterer recalled Stinnett as not only a talented photographer, but as “just a great guy, very, very friendly” and someone who was very even-keeled, not letting too many things upset him
Born in East  Oakland and a 1942 graduate of Fremont High School, Stinnett enlisted in the Navy in World War II, working as a combat photographer in the Pacific theater and serving in the same aerial photo group as future President George H.W. Bush.
.He also worked briefly as a photographer for the San Francisco Examiner.
Following his retirement, he wrote two historically significant books about the war in the Pacific: “George Bush:  His World War II Years” and “Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor.”
Stinnett was preceded in death in 2009 by his wife of 56 years, Marguerite “Peggy” Stinnett, a well-known reporter and columnist for the Montclarion and Tribune.
He is survived by his daughter, Colleen Badagliacco, and his son, Jim Stinnett of San Francisco, his grandchildren Robert Badagliacco and Laura Deauville, and five great-grandchildren. Funeral services are pending. The family suggests donations in his memory to the Society of Professional Journalists.