This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Borge Andersen, a long-time Salt Lake City businessman and former newspaper photographer, died Wednesday. He was 77.

Andersen's death was due to complications from medical problems, his nephew, Rick Asper, said Thursday.

Andersen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1934. He emigrated with his parents and sister to Salt Lake City in 1948. He attended West High School, where he commanded the school's Reserve Officer Training Corps, and the University of Utah, according to friends and family.

Upon graduating from high school in 1954, he went to work for The Salt Lake Tribune, starting as a copy boy and eventually advancing to the position of news photographer.

Andersen left The Tribune in 1968 to start a photography business with his partner, Jerry Silver. The pair jointly owned Anfil Photography until Andersen purchased Silver's interest a few years later. The business was renamed Borge Andersen and Associates. It was called Borge B. Andersen and Associates Photo Digital when Andersen retired in March and sold the business to his employees.

Andersen also cofounded Pictureline, a Salt Lake City supplier to commercial professional photographers, in 1989. He held his interest in the business until 1996.

He taught photography at the university and served in Army Reserve, retiring in 1994 with the rank of major.

"He was really a nice guy," said his sister, Ane Asper. A lifelong bachelor, her brother's "whole life was work, and he never had time for anything else. He taught at the U., he was in the Army, and then he worked. That's what kept him going the whole time."

Former Tribune colleagues recall that Andersen blended a tenacious work ethic with strong news judgment.

"What impressed me most about Borge was he was always interested in the best shot that could be taken," said Dick Rosetta, a former Tribune sportswriter and editor. "I was much more comfortable when I had a photographer like Borge Andersen along because he was an ideas man. He could frame a photograph along the lines of what I was thinking, but he was thinking about it a long time before I did."

Mike Korologos and Andersen were copy boys together in the mid-1950s. Korologos said Andersen mentored him until the pair took different jobs at the paper.

"He moved to photo, and in my opinion he was the first of the new generation of really good photographers," Korologos said. "The old-timers all used Speed Graphic [press] cameras. Many of them were trained in the military. Borge brought some real creativity to the photo department. He was one of the first to use 35-millimeter cameras and wide-angle lenses. He set the pace for excellent photographers who came after him."

In addition to Ane Asper and Rick Asper, Andersen is survived by nephew Mark Asper and Connie Muir, a niece.

In lieu of a funeral, a memorial gathering will be held at the Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary on July 3, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. A graveside service will follow.