Berke Breathed
1987 Pulitzer Prize, Editorial Cartooning
Berke Breathed was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in editorial cartooning in 1987 for his Bloom County strip syndicated by the Washington Post’s Writer’s Group.
Breathed, a 1980 University of Texas at Austin photojournalism graduate, began his cartooning career at The Daily Texan where he created Bloom County’s predecessor, The Academia Waltz, in the late 1970s. The title Bloom County also first appeared in The Daily Texan in 1980.
Breathed retired Bloom County in 1989. "Opus" was launched in November 2003.
His creative works also include Outland (1989-95), more than a dozen books and a children’s video.
Source: The Complete Marquis Who’s Who Biographies. Gilbert Garcia, “Bloom County’s predecessor: The Academia Waltz,” The Daily Texan, June 19,1989.
Jean-Marc Bouju
1995 Pulitzer Prize, Feature Photography
1999 Pulitzer Prize, Spot News Photography
Jean-Marc Bouju shared the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography with three photojournalists with the Associated Press. The team was awarded the prize for its coverage of the devastating ethnic violence in Rwanda.
Bouju's entry was a photograph of refugee children pleading to be allowed to cross a bridge from Rwanda to Zaire.
Bouju and an AP correspondent were the first to enter Karubamba, a village where at least 2,000 people were massacred after a plane crash that killed Rwanda's leaders and sparked the civil war.
In a Daily Texan article, David Fitzgerald, one of The Daily Texan's former photography editors, said he remembered a time when he was on a public bus in El Salvador, and Bouju "almost got (us) killed" Fitzgerald said Bouju refused to give up his camera bag after being held up at gunpoint and then made an obscene gesture at the robber. "He's extremely talented. He's pretty fearless."
The 1999 Spot News Photography Pulitzer Prize was awarded for coverage of the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Bouju worked at The Daily Texan from 1991 to 1993 and was a master's student in photojournalism.
Sources: Joseph P. Kahn, Globe writer wins a Pulitzer, The Boston Globe, April 19, 1995. The Daily Texan, "Shots in the dark: Former Texan photographers win Pulitzer," The Daily Texan, April 19, 1995.
Gallery of 1999 Spot News Photography winners.
Carolyn Cole
1998 Pulitzer Prize, Breaking News
2004 Pulitzer Prize, Feature Photography
Carolyn Cole is a 1983 graduate of the School of Journalism in the College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin. A photographer with The Los Angeles Times since 1994, she previously worked for the Sacramento Bee, the San Francisco Examiner and the El Paso Herald Post.
Cole is an internationally recognized photographer who has recorded conflicts around the globe. Her work has garnered critical acclaim and awards, including the 2004 George Polk Award for Photojournalism; the 2004 National Press Photographers Association newspaper photographer of the year; the 2003 Robert Capa Award for courage in photography for covering the siege at the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem; and the 2004 University of Missouri Pictures of the Year newspaper photographer of the year. She has been recognized twice with the Los Angeles Times Editorial Awards for her 1994 series for “Haiti: Crisis in the Caribbean” and for her 1995 series “Health Crisis in Russia.” Her work has frequently been represented in the University of Missouri’s Pictures of the Year as well.
Recent books and publications include: “Holy Lands,” Life Books, Time, Inc.; “The American Spirit,” Life Books, Time, Inc.; “Life- The Year in Pictures, 2002,” Life Books, Time, Inc.”; and “A Year to Remember,” Time Magazine.
A gallery of her Pulitzer winning series is available.
Ron Cortes
1997 Pulitzer Prize, Explanatory Journalism
Ron Cortes received the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 for explanatory journalism as a photojournalist with the Philadelphia Inquirer. He was awarded the prize for his photography in a series on the choices that confronted critically ill patients who sought to die with dignity.
Cortes is a native Texan, born in San Antonio, and a University of Texas graduate. He received a degree in mathematics in 1966 and taught for 10 years in Texas, California and Tehran, Iran. He returned to UT in 1978 to do postgraduate work in photojournalism
Cortes began his photojournalism career in 1981 at the News Journal in Wilmington, Del. In 1987 he joined the Philadelphia Inquirer staff.
He has covered stories in Cuba, Bosnia, Ethiopia and Haiti.
Source: Pulitzer Prize website sponsored by the Columbia Journalism Review.
Karen Elliot House
1984 Pulitzer Prize, International Reporting
Karen Elliott House received the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 in international reporting while a reporter with the Wall Street Journal. She was awarded the prize for her series of interviews with Jordan's King Hussein, which correctly anticipated the problems that would confront the Reagan administration's Middle East peace plan.
House graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the Department of Journalism in 1970.
House joined the Wall Street Journal in Washington, D.C., as a reporter in 1974 and later was named diplomatic correspondent in 1978, assistant foreign editor in 1983 and foreign editor a year later. She was appointed vice-president, International Group, for Dow Jones in 1989, and also was named to the Dow Jones management committee. In 1995, House was named president of the International Group.
Source: Business Wire, "Dow Jones announces executive appointments," Business Wire, Inc., January 19,1995.
John McConnico
1999 Pulitzer Prize, Spot News Photography
John McConnico, a B.J. '87 and M.A.'94 graduate of the Department of Journalism, was named April 12 as a winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
He served on a team of six Associated Press photographers (including Jean-Marc Bouju, former UT student and previous winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 1995) who covered the U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
McConnico brings to 19 the number of Pulitzer prizes won by former UT students associated with the Department of Journalism. Eleven have been won by photojournalism students.
J.B. Colson, photojournalism professor, said McConnico was an outstanding student at UT. Colson served as adviser for McConnico's master's thesis, "Views of Participants in an Innovative Texas Prison System Drug and Alcohol Treatement center: The New Vision Program." Professor Gene Burd also served as a reader on McConnico's thesis.
Dennis Darling, head of the photojournalism program, said of McConnico, "It takes a special kind of person to live that kind of life. It is like a photo junkie - they like to live in the thick of things. Their everyday life is lived under condtions that are far from comfortable."
Gallery of 1999 Spot News Photography winners.
Ben Sargent
1982 Pulitzer Prize, Editorial Cartooning
Ben Sargent received the Pulitzer Prize in 1982 in editorial cartooning while at the Austin American-Statesman.
Sargent began his journalism career in his hometown of Amarillo while a student at Amarillo College. He then attended the University of Texas and graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism degree in 1970.
Early in his journalism career, he was a reporter with the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, the Long News Service, the Austin American-Statesman and the UPI.
He was the Austin American-Statesman’s political cartoonist from 1974 until his retirement in 2009.
Source: The Complete Marquis Who’s Who Biographies.
Oscar Griffin, Jr.
1963 Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting
Oscar Griffin, Jr. received the Pulitzer Prize in 1963 while editor of the Pecos Independent and Enterprise. He was awarded the prize for his efforts in initiating the exposure of the Billie Sol Estes scandal. The newspaperâs stories brought a major fraud against the United States government to national attention and resulted in the prosecution and conviction of Estes.
Griffin received a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1958. He was born in Daisetta, Texas, and has served Texas readers since 1960. He was editor of the Canyon News and the Pecos Independent and Enterprise. He also worked for the Houston Chronicle from1962 to 1969 as a reporter and White House correspondent.
From 1969 to 1974, Griffin took a respite from writing for the public sector to serving it as Assistant Director of Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of Transportation. After his work in Washington he returned to Texas and founded Griffin Well Service, an oil company in El Campo. Also in that time he graduated from the Harvard School of Business.
In 1963, Griffin also received an award for investigative reporting from the Southwest Journalism Forum.
Source: Who's Who In America, 52nd, 51st, 50th 49th, 48th Editions; Who's Who in the South and Southwest, 24th Edition
Mark Dooley
1997 Pulitzer Prize, Public Service
Mark Dooley shared the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for public service with a news team at The Times-Picayune. The team was awarded the prize for a comprehensive series analyzing the environmental and economic forces that threaten the world-wide fishing industry and the cultures of fishing communities.
Dooley received a Bachelor of Journalism degree from The University of Texas at Austin in 1982.
The team covered areas from the Gulf of Mexico to the coast of New England and from Alaska to Thailand and documented the human costs of fishery collapses and explored the governmental and scientific options that would restore the industry.
Dooley was copy editor for the team.
Source: Jeffrey Meitrodt, "Times-Picayune wins two Pulitzers; Wynton Marsalis scores with Blood in the Fields," The Times-Picayune, April 8, 1997, A1.
Erwin H. Hagler
1980 Pulitzer Prize, Feature Photography
Erwin Hagler received the Pulitzer Prize in 1980 in feature photography on the western cowboy while a photojournalist at the Dallas Times Herald.
He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor's degree in architecture in 1971.
Hagler joined the Waco Texas Tribune photography staff after graduating from college. From 1972-1974, he was a photographer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in his hometown of Fort Worth. He then went to work for the Dallas Times Herald from 1974 to its closing in 1988.
In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Hagler also was honored by the National Press Photographer's Association as regional photographer of the year in 1972 and 1974.
He is currently a free-lance photographer in Dallas.
Source: The Complete Marquis Who's Who Biographies.
Victoria Loe, Gayle Reaves and Judy Walgren
1994 Pulitzer Prize, International Reporting
Walgren DeHaas
Victoria Loe-Hicks, Gayle Reaves and Judy Walgren DeHaas shared the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting with members of a Dallas Morning News team. The team was awarded the prize for a series of 14 stories that examined the epidemic of violence against women in many nations.
Reaves and Walgren DeHaas graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with bachelor's degrees in journalism, Reaves in 1973 and Walgren in 1988. Loe did graduate work in the Department of Journalism.
Loe-Hicks and Reaves were two of the 11 reporters on the team. Walgren DeHaas was one of five photojournalists who worked with the writers.
Source: The Dallas Morning News, "Morning News wins Pulitzer Prize," The Dallas Morning News, April 13, 1994, A1.
Dan Malone
1992 Pulitzer Prize, Investigative Reporting
Dan Malone received the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 1992 while a staff writer at the Dallas Morning News. He was awarded the prize for his stories that charged Texas police with extensive misconduct and abuse of power.
Malone graduated from the University of Texas in 1978 with a Bachelor of Journalism degree.
He began his journalism career as the editor-in-chief of The Daily Texan his senior year in college and as an intern for the Harte-Hanks Austin bureau after graduation. Malone was a reporter for the Corpus Christi-Caller Times and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram before joining the Dallas Morning News staff in 1985.
Malone also was awarded first place in the freedom of information category by the Texas Associated Press Managing Editor's Association in 1992 and first place in investigative reporting by the Institute of Southern Studies in 1992.
Malone is currently Fort Worth bureau chief for the Dallas Morning News.
Source: The Complete Marquis Who's Who Biographies.
Larry C. Price
1981 Pulitzer Prize, Spot News Photography
1985 Pulitzer Prize, Feature Photography
Larry Price has received two Pulitzer prizes during his journalism career. Price was honored in 1981 for his spot news photography while a photojournalist at the Fort Worth-Star Telegram. He was honored again in 1985 for his feature photographs from Angola and El Salvador depicting their war-torn inhabitants while a photojournalist at The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Price received a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1977. He was a member of the The Daily Texan staff his senior year in college.
His journalism career has spanned more than two decades. After college, he joined the El Paso Times staff. He later worked on the news staff at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and later as assistant managing editor and associate editor. During that time, Price also was a visiting professor at UT.
In 1983, he left Fort Worth for The Philadelphia Inquirer to work as a photojournalist and then left to join the Baltimore Sun photography staff. He returned to The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1987 to become its director of photography and work at its Washington bureau.
Price also has received a Best Photographic Reporting award from the Overseas Press Club and has been honored at the World Press Photo Awards.
Source: The Complete Marquis Who's Who Biographies.
Eileen Welsome
1994 Pulitzer Prize, National Reporting
Eileen Welsome received the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 in national reporting while a reporter for The Albuquerque Tribune. She was awarded the prize for her stories that reported on the government's testing of toxicity conducted on unwilling and unknowing Americans during the Cold War.
Welsome graduated in 1980 from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Journalism degree.
She began her journalism career as a reporter for the Beaumont Enterprise after college. Before joining The Albuquerque Tribune staff in 1987, she was a reporter for the San Antonio Light and the San Antonio Express-News.
Welsome also has been honored by the National Headliners Association and the Associated Press and has received almost a dozen awards for her writing.
Source: The Complete Marquis Who's Who Biographies. Ryan Bauer, "Celebrating Texas Journalism," The Daily Texan, April 1, 1997.
William S. White
1955 Pulitzer Prize, Letters
William S. White won the Pulitzer Prize in 1955 for The Taft Story, a biography of Republican Sen. Robert F. Taft of Ohio who ran for president in 1952. Among White's other works are The Citadel and The Making of a Journalist, both of which are derived from his work as a journalist.
His journalism career led him far from his hometown of De Leon, Texas, where he was born in 1905. White began his journalism career in the 1920s while attending the University of Texas at Austin, where he took courses in the Department of Journalism and worked as a reporter for The Austin Statesman (now the Austin American-Statesman). He went on to become a World War II correspondent, a political reporter and a columnist. White covered Washington and the war for the Associated Press and then joined the New York Times in 1954. In 1958, he left the New York Times to write a syndicated column that appeared in 175 newspapers nationwide.
White died April 30, 1994, after suffering a stroke. He was 88.
Sources: The Associated Press, "William White; Won Pulitzer for Biography," Los Angeles Times, May 3, 1994, A1.