Photojournalist who snapped
9/11’s firemen & flag to speak at URI
Talk is part of Journalism Day
at the University
KINGSTON, R.I. — November 1, 2002 — The story behind the famous photo of the firemen hoisting the flag on 9/11 will be told by the photojournalist who took the picture. His talk is part of “A Day of Journalism” at the University of Rhode Island on Thursday, Nov. 14, jointly sponsored by URI ‘s Department of Journalism and the Rhode Island Press Association. The day also includes the induction of four journalists into the Journalism Hall of Fame and a discussion exploring the problems faced by journalists reporting on controversial issues. The day is free and open to the public.
Thomas E. Franklin, a photojournalist for 15 years and a staff photographer at The Record in Bergen County, N.J. since 1993, will speak in the Barry Marks Auditorium of the Chafee Social Science Center from 2:30 to 4 p.m.
His now famous image of three firemen raising the American flag above the rubble of the World Trade Center taken on Sept. 11, 2001, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and the winner of countless awards. The photograph has appeared on the covers of many publications, including Newsweek, USA Today, Parade Sunday Magazine, and People magazine. Franklin has been a guest on radio and television shows many times, including the Today show (three times), Good Morning America, CNN, Fox Cable Network, and Oprah.
Last June, the U. S. Postal Service introduced the “Heroes” stamp, featuring Franklin’s photo, with proceeds going to the families of victims of 9/11.
Franklin’s flag raising photo has been instrumental in raising money for The Record’s, North Jersey Disaster Relief Fund, of which Franklin is a board member. To date, the fund has raised close to $2 million.
Before joining The Record, Franklin worked for the North Jersey Herald & News, the Journal News, and was a freelancer for many national newspapers and magazines. He has been the recipient of more than 30 national and international awards.
Journalism Day begins with a panel of local newspaper and television journalists discussing the difficulties in covering sensitive stories in Atrium 1 of the Memorial Union from 10:30 to noon. Journalism Professor Barbara Luebke will moderate.
One working journalist and three deceased journalists who have left behind a legacy of excellence will be inducted into the Journalism Hall of Fame. A plaque with their likeness describing their accomplishments will hang in the lobby of URI’s Chafee building.
This year’s inductees are:
o Brian Dickinson, 1937 – 2002. For almost a decade, Dickinson wrote commentary for The Providence Journal even though for most of that time Lou Gehrig’s disease had left him totally paralyzed, except for the ability to move his eyes. This ability, computer devices, the constant devotion of his family and his towering intellect enabled him, as the Journal put it, “to put out a body of commentary whose eloquence, emotional precision and even humor drew international attention.”
A Harvard graduate with a master’s degree in political science from Brown University, Dickinson worked as a reporter at the Journal before becoming an editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial columnist.
o Elliott K. Stein, 1923-1998
Born in Hartford, Conn., Stein received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Trinity College in Hartford and did further studies at the Drexel Institute of Technology.
Before plunging into journalism, he served his country as an Army rifleman in World War II. Wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, he received a number of medals and co-wrote a history of his Army company. After the war, he plunged into journalism, first working as a reporter in Southington, Conn., and then as an editor at The Hartford Courant.
Stein became affiliated with the Newport Daily News, first as a freelancer and then as a staff member. He became managing editor in 1979 and guided its staff through some award-winning journalism. Retiring from the Daily News in 1988, Stein immediately plunged into community work.
o Emma Shaw Colcleugh, 1846-1940
Born Emma Shaw in Thompson, Conn, she became a teacher at 18 in Providence in 1864, which allowed her to travel in the summer. In 1875, planning a trip to Canada, she asked The Providence Journal editors if they would publish articles she wrote about her travels. The newspaper agreed. Her freelance writing eventually led to a 43-year tenure as a reporter for the Journal, combining her travel writing with the less than glamorous task of writing and editing a weekly column covering Providence women’s clubs news.
Each summer Colcleugh took a trip to some faraway land as the Hawaiian Islands, Fiji, and African countries, and Cuba. From Cuba, she and fellow Journal women’s reporter Sarah Hopkins wrote incisive articles about the poor conditions after the Spanish-American War. The articles were syndicated in dozens of newspapers across the nation.
o John P. Ford, 1921
A sports writer for Observer Publications in Smithfield since 1959 and later a sports editor, Ford is one of the few remaining sports cartoonists in Rhode Island. His weekly column “Sports Sidelines” gave birth to his self-applied nickname “The Sideliner.”
Possessed of an impressive memory for names, faces, and athletic achievements, Ford is as close to being a human encyclopedia of his region’s sports history as is possible.
He places present day area athletes in the context of former competitors in the same sport. Regularly sons and daughter and even grandchildren of his former subjects write or call to praise his mention of their predecessors in his current reporting. His cartoons are treasured and can be found on the walls and in the trophy cases of all the schools he covers and, no doubt in countless scrapbooks.
A member of several halls of fame, including Words Unlimited and the Rhode Island Gridiron Club, Ford is content sitting at the keyboard of “old ironsides,” the typewriter he still uses, favoring it over the computer. His job, he has said, is the best antidote to aging he could imagine.
For more information about the day’s event, contact URI Journalism Professor Linda Levin, 874-4287.