Michel du Cille to receive Benton medallion
Journalism alumnus Michel du Cille, who won three Pulitzer Prizes for his photojournalism work, will be honored posthumously with the university’s prestigious Thomas Hart Benton Medallion at The Media School’s Distinguished Alumni Award in Journalism celebration Friday.
Du Cille died in December while on assignment in Liberia for The Washington Post.
The Benton Medallion, awarded to at least one individual every year since 1986, honors those who have given outstanding service and support to the university and who epitomize the values of the university and international academic community as a whole.
President Michael A. McRobbie will present the medal to du Cille’s wife, Washington Post photojournalist Nikki Kahn, during a banquet in Presidents Hall in Franklin Hall, the future home of The Media School.
“Michel du Cille’s work is an outstanding example of the good that can come from focusing on communication in visual form,” said James Shanahan, dean of The Media School. “We’re delighted that we have this opportunity to recognize his work, tempered by the sadness that very many in this school will be missing a valued friend and colleague.”
Du Cille graduated from IU in 1985 and went on to work as a photojournalist for the Miami Herald and the Post. He won his first Pulitzer at the Herald, sharing the spot news photography prize for coverage of the 1985 eruption of a Colombian volcano. His second Pulitzer, also for the Herald, was for his photo essay of crack cocaine addicts in a Miami housing project.
In 1988, du Cille joined The Washington Post as picture editor, and he eventually became head of the Post’s photojournalism staff. The paper won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2008 for coverage of the treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Du Cille worked on the series with reporters Dana Priest and Anne Hull. Their stories led to changes in the government’s care of injured veterans.
Before his death, du Cille was in regular contact with IU faculty and staff. He had planned to return to Bloomington as a guest speaker in IU journalism professor of practice Tom French’s Behind the Prize class last spring. He was a member of the former IU School of Journalism’s first class of Distinguished Alumni in 2011.
Several IU journalism faculty and alumni traveled to Washington, D.C., in January to pay tribute to du Cille during a celebration of his life, which took place at the Newseum.
Six other alumni, including award-winning news reporters, producers, photographers and educators, will be honored as Distinguished Alumni in Journalism at the event. The evening will begin with a reception, followed by dinner and presentation of the awards, which will include video tributes to the honorees’ careers.
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