KU News Release

Noted photojournalist and KU alumnus to receive national citation

Richard Clarkson

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas alumnus and nationally known photojournalist Richard C. Clarkson will be honored with the William Allen White Foundation’s National Citation during a free, public ceremony at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9, at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union.

Clarkson graduated from KU with a journalism degree in 1956. In his professional career, he has been director of photography and senior assistant editor of the National Geographic Society, assistant managing editor for graphics at the Denver Post and director of photography at the Topeka Capital-Journal. He also has worked regularly as a contract magazine photographer for Sports Illustrated, Time and Life magazines.

Clarkson photographed seven summer and one winter Olympics, organizing all picture coverage for Time at Munich in 1972 and Montreal in 1976 and for Sports Illustrated at Moscow in 1980. He was a consultant to the Los Angeles Organizing Committee in 1984 and was manager of all photography for the main stadium at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

“Rich Clarkson has been a tremendous friend to and supporter of the J-School over the years,” said Ann Brill, dean of KU’s William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications. “We are so proud of his accomplishments and the national recognition he has received.”

Clarkson founded Rich Clarkson and Associates in Denver in 1987. The company creates and manages unique fine photography projects, including packaging photographic books, creating attendant exhibitions and managing photography and associated publishing projects for clients such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Colorado Rockies Baseball Club and the Denver Broncos football team.

He also manages continuing education seminars and workshops for professional photographers and serves as a consultant to media, advertising and photographic trade organizations.

American Photo magazine named Clarkson as one of the 50 most influential individuals in American photography. He was selected for inclusion in the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame with the class of 2007. He is also a recipient of an honorary master of science degree in professional photography from the Brooks Institute of Photography.

The White Foundation trustees chose Clarkson to receive the citation, presented annually since 1950. KU’s journalism school is named in White’s honor. White (1868-1944) was a nationally influential Kansas editor and publisher. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1923.

Other notable recipients of the citation are James Reston, 1950; Walter Cronkite, 1969; Arthur O. Sulzberger, 1974; James J. Kilpatrick, 1979; Helen Thomas, 1986; Charles Kuralt, 1989; Bernard Shaw, 1994; Bob Woodward, 2000; Molly Ivins, 2001; Cokie Roberts, 2002; Gerald F. Seib, 2005; and Gordon Parks, 2006. A listing of all past recipients is available online.

To read Clarkson’s full biography and to see digital examples of his photography, visit the journalism school's Web site. An exhibit of his work is on display on the second floor of KU’s Stauffer-Flint Hall.

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