UPI photographer 'Pappy' Noel dead at 86

WASHINGTON, July 22 (UPI) -- Arnold Noel, a former special assistant to President Gerald R. Ford and a longtime news photographer, has died at the age of 86, the Washington Post reported.

Noel, known among the Washington press corps by his World War II nickname "Pappy," succumbed to cancer July 4 at his home in Front Royal, Va.

Noel was a newsreel and still photographer for United Press International in the 1960s and 1970s and served two years as president of the White House Press Photographers Association.

His assignments included coverage of the civil rights movement, the U.S. space program and wars in Central America.

Noel left UPI in 1975 and worked for the Ford administration press office for 18 months.

The Post noted that Noel sported a mustache that distinguished him from Frank "Pappy" Noel, a photographer for the rival Associated Press. He went on to open a restaurant in Front Royal called "My Father's Mustache," which he sold in 1990.