DURHAM, NC (February 16, 2009) - The National Press Photographers Foundation, Inc. has awarded Carrie Kohlmeier of the Fox affiliate in Duluth, MN, the 2008 Gordon Yoder Award of $1,000 to assist with the expenses of attending the National Press Photographers Association's 2009 NPPA NewsVideo Workshop in Norman, OK, in April.
The award was established by Gordon Yoder, who died in 2004, to assist a working television photojournalist who wants to attend the workshop. The announcement of Kohlmeier's selection was made by today by Edward Dooks, Yoder Award chairman for the NPPF.
"We're so proud of Carrie," Fox 21's news director Julie Moravchik said today. "She's so talented and has such a great attitude. It's nice to see her awarded this way."
In the fall of 1937 Gordon Yoder got a job at Jamieson Film Co. in Dallas, TX. He had no professional experience and worked for free until Mr. Jamieson thought he was good enough to pay a salary. That took two weeks. Yoder began shooting newsreel stories for Paramount News in 1943. When the Korean War broke out, Paramount sent him to Korea as a cameraman for the American Newsreel Pool. In 1952 he went to work for Telenews and worked for them for 16 years, until they folded all news operations.
Yoder founded Professional Cine Products in 1968 and later changed the name to Gordon Yoder, Inc. He made many improvements to the Cine Voice conversion and designed and built motion picture equipment. By l977, tape began to appear in the newsrooms instead of film, and Yoder received an offer of a buyout in early 1978. He jumped at the chance and retired.
During his career Yoder photographed U.S. presidents from Harry S. Truman to Richard Nixon, presidential inaugurations, the integration battles of the south, the landings of astronauts Alan Shepard and John Glenn, and major disasters and news stories across the country.
As Gordon said upon retirement, “I've never worked a day in my life - it's all been fun.”
