KU alumni to be inducted into inaugural class of Kansas Photojournalism Hall of Fame


LAWRENCE — Three of the 12 members being inducted this weekend in the inaugural class of the Kansas Press Association’s Kansas Photojournalism Hall of Fame are alumni of the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications.

Rich Clarkson, Carl Davaz and Sandra Milburn are the KU alumni who will be honored at a ceremony Nov. 19 at The Beacon in Topeka. Others to be inducted are Jeff Jacobsen, Chris Johns, Brian Lanker, Gordon Parks, Jim Richardson, Charlie Riedel, Gary Settle, Bill Snead and Pete Souza.

Clarkson is one of four founders of the National Press Photographers Foundation and a past president of the association. His proteges are considered leaders throughout the world of photojournalism. For 25 years, he served as the director of photography at the Topeka Capital-Journal. He also led the photo and art department at the Denver Post as assistant managing editor/graphics and was the National Geographic magazine’s director of photography in the 1980s. In addition, Clarkson was for decades a contract photographer for Sports Illustrated magazine. He has photographed 59 Final Four basketball tournaments for the NCAA and Sports Illustrated. More than 30 Sports Illustrated covers have displayed his photographs – the first in 1964. He also covered six Olympics. The Clarkson Gallery inside the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications is named in his honor.

In 1974, Davaz became the only KU student ever to win the William Randolph Hearst Collegiate Photojournalism Competition. Five years later, Davaz became the director of photography at the Missoulian in Missoula, Montana. He left the Missoulian to join the Register-Guard in Eugene, Oregon, as director of graphics, where he worked for three decades.

After graduating from the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications, Milburn was hired as a photographer at The Hutchinson News and was promoted to photo editor in 1995. She worked at the newspaper for 32 years until earlier this year. She is now a communications specialist for Reno County. Milburn’s aerial photograph of damage caused by an EF-5 tornado in Greensburg won AP Photo of the Year. Her work also been recognized with many other AP and KPA awards during her career.

Fri, 11/18/2022

 

Media Contacts

Erinn Barcomb-Peterson

KU News Service

785-864-8858