Former News Photographer Magazine Editor & NPPA President Cal Olson Dies After Fall

 

BIG ISLAND LAKE, MN (July 16, 2009) – Cal Olson, who was editor of News Photographer magazine from 1967 to 1971 (then called the National Press Photographer), and who was a two-time president of the National Press Photographers Association in 1964 and 1965, died today in hospital in Duluth, MN, following a fall yesterday at his Itasca County cabin. He was 84.

Olson was the former managing editor of The Forum newspaper in Fargo, ND, where he had also been a photographer, and where he and the staff won a 1958 Pulitzer Prize for their coverage – and his photograph – of a deadly 1957 Fargo tornado. The staff worked to put out a total edition of the paper with complete tornado coverage less than five hours after the storm hit.

Olson's photograph showed a man carrying the lifeless body of a child from the rubble created by the devastating storm.

Pulitzer-Prize winner and 1976 NPPA president Jerry Gay remembers Olson for his "decades of unselfish giving to NPPA."

"Cal was a leader and a truly great example for many of us," Gay said today from Seattle. "During his career Cal was honored with almost every award and recognition NPPA has created for his continual contributions, professional manner, and his personal attitude which encouraged all of us to be the best we can be, whenever and where ever."

"This is very sad," Rich Clarkson, 1975 NPPA president, said today from Denver. "Cal was a class guy who provided solid leadership with real style. His years as president were very good, and his later editorship of the magazine was a singnificant factor in so many members thinking the organization really spoke to the issues with a respected voice for news photographers everywhere."

"He was a leader who understood the NPPA mission while addressing the vision of photojournalism," said C. Thomas Hardin from Louisville, who was NPPA president in 1984. "He was a friend to so many of us. He supported us as we followed his terms of president. He was always thinking, caring, and leading."

Olson joined The Forum staff in 1950 as a reporter and photographer and was named chief photographer in 1957. In 1972 he was named managing editor after working as the paper's city editor. In 1978 he left The Forum to become editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa. He retired from that post 19 years ago.

NPPA founder Joseph Costa, who edited and published the first 257 consecutive issues of National Press Photographer magazine during its first 21 years, turned the publication over to Olson in Fargo in 1967. While Oslon was editor, Costa was the magazine's editor emeritus. Olson turned the monthly over to a new editor, Tom Keane, in 1971.

There have been seven editors of NPPA's monthly magazine since the organization was founded in 1946. Founder Costa was followed by Olson in 1967, Keane in 1971, Marjorie "Midge" Morris in 1974, Bill Kuykendall in 1976, Jim Gordon in 1978, and Donald R. Winslow since 2003. The name of the magazine was changed from National Press Photographer to News Photographer during the time Morris was editor.

Born in Vining, MN, Olson served as a naval aviator during World War II and graduated from the University of Minnesota.

He was an NPPA Life Member who joined the organization in 1952.

Olson was presented with NPPA's highest honor in 1973, the Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award. In 1965 he was presented with NPPA's Joseph Costa Award in recognition of his outstanding initiative, leadership, and service in advancing the goals of NPPA in the tradition of NPPA's founder.

In 1966, Olson received the J. Winton Lemen Fellowship Award from NPPA for "continuing to render outstanding service in the interests of press photography," and in 1962 he was given the Samuel Mellor Award for "setting an example of devotion to NPPA's ideals." The organization also honored Olson in 1985 with the Kenneth P. McLaughlin Award of Merit.

Olson is survived by his wife, Joanne; one son, Charles; and one daughter, Catherine McMullen.

 

Tim Hynds of the Sioux City Journal contributed reporting to this story

 

 

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