Faculty, alumni attend du Cille memorial in Washington, D.C.
Faculty and alumni of IU Journalism traveled to Washington, D.C., Jan. 16 to pay tribute to their friend and colleague Michel du Cille, BA’85, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist who died in Liberia Dec. 11 while covering the Ebola virus for The Washington Post. Du Cille received journalism’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2011.
The celebration of life took place at the Newseum and included reflections by Donald Winslow, ’76, du Cille’s classmate at IU; Donald Graham, chairman of Graham Holdings Co. and former CEO of The Washington Post Co.; and du Cille’s colleagues from the Post and The Miami Herald.
Journalism chair Bonnie Brownlee attended the ceremony, along with faculty members Jim Kelly, Steve Raymer and Tom French. More than a dozen attendees had IU connections, and Winslow acknowledged du Cille’s IU contemporaries in his address.
“It was a moving, lovely and fitting tribute to Michel’s distinguished career,” Brownlee said.
Du Cille’s career took him to The Miami Herald, where he won the first of three Pulitzer Prizes in 1986, and then to The Washington Post, where he won Pulitzers in 1988 and 2008. He was in regular contact with faculty and staff and had planned to return to Bloomington as a guest speaker in French’s Behind the Prize class later this month.
Kelly said a multimedia slideshow of du Cille’s work, shown at the end of the memorial celebration, spoke eloquently about his contribution to journalism.
“I wish we hadn’t had to gather like that, but I was so happy Michel’s colleagues were there to honor his life,” Kelly said.
Raymer said colleagues, friends and family lauded du Cille for his humility, compassion and intimate images — moments of truth that often came from the dark side of life.
“I shall always remember his pictures of the wounded and the shabby conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — images that earned Michel his third Pulitzer Prize — and his Ebola coverage from Liberia,” Raymer said. “He got close to people and died at the top of his game. What a legacy.”
Winslow announced that du Cille would receive the annual Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award, the highest honor bestowed by the National Press Photographers Association.
A photo taken by Caitlin O’Hara, BAJ’14, during du Cille’s visit to French’s Behind the Prize class last spring, was one of three photos chosen for the program.
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