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William Diehl coped with the boredom of serving as a juror in a Fulton County, Ga., courtroom by beginning to write a book on a notepad, his friends told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In 1978 the novel Diehl was writing, "Sharky's Machine," was published and in 1981 the screen adaptation starring Burt Reynolds hit theaters.
The best-selling novelist died Nov. 24 at the age of 81.
Before Diehl's name graced a book cover or scrolled across the silver screen in a film's credits, it appeared alongside photographs in the Georgia Tech Alumnus. A longtime friend of former Alumnus editor Bob Wallace, Diehl served as the publication's chief photographer for nearly a decade in the 1950s and '60s.
In an interview with the Alumni Magazine in 1998, Diehl said that his time working for Georgia Tech and Wallace "was very valuable, very rewarding. We never had an argument. Never had a fight."
"I shot every [Georgia Tech] football game for 11 years, then assignments for the alumni publications. We did some really experimental stuff that worked very well." Some of his pictures were even picked up by Sports Illustrated.
After serving in World War II, Diehl returned to his hometown of Clearfield, Pa. — also the hometown of Wallace — where he worked as a reporter for The Clearfield Progress. He later moved to Atlanta and landed a job with the Atlanta Constitution for which he covered the police beat. Diehl later began taking photographs to accompany his stories with such success that he left the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1956 and began working as a freelance photographer. In 1960, Diehl became the managing editor of Atlanta magazine.
On his 50th birthday, Diehl decided to give up photography and return to his first love — writing. He sold all of his cameras and devoted his time to writing novels.
Diehl became a best-selling author with such thrillers as "Sharky's Machine," "Thai Horse" and "Primal Fear." At the time of his death, he was working on his 10th novel.
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