The Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame in Washington, Mo., will induct three award-winning innovators and teachers of photography and journalism on Oct. 17.
This will be the ninth group of inductees since the founding of the Hall of Fame in 2005. Inductees are Bob Linder of Springfield, Geri Migielicz of California and the late Jim Miller Jr. of Washington, Mo.
Photographs made by the inductees will be on display during the 4 p.m. ceremony and reception. Those photographs will join the Hall of Fame’s collection of work by inductees.
The Photojournalism Hall of Fame is a project of Bill Miller Sr., publisher of the Washington Missourian twice-weekly newspaper and brother of one of this year’s inductees. The Hall’s home is a building near the newspaper office in downtown Washington.
Information about the Photojournalism Hall of Fame and previous inductees can be seen at mopress.com/Photojournalism_HOF.php.
This year’s inductees:
• Bob Linder attended Missouri State University in Springfield, his hometown. He worked as a photojournalist, chief photographer, photo editor and photography director for 37 years for the Springfield Daily Events, Leader-Press and News-Leader.
He received many awards from news organizations, the National Press Photographers Association, Gannett and the Missouri Press Association.
Embracing change, Linder specialized in color photos in print, introduced the Springfield News-Leader’s first digital cameras and placed the newspaper’s first video on the Internet. His special passion is photographing the people and places of the Ozarks.
• Geri Migielicz developed from a newspaper photographer into a multimedia storyteller, a digital entrepreneur and university professor.
After graduation from the Missouri School of Journalism, Migielicz went to work for the Emporia (Kan.) Gazette and the as chief photographer for the St. Joseph News-Press and Gazette. She later worked at The Seattle Times and The Rocky Mountain News, then for 23 years at the San Jose Mercury News, where she led the photo department.
Projects by her staff won numerous national awards for news, photography, documentaries and multimedia reporting. Honors included Pulitzer Prize finalist.
In 2008 Migielicz started Story4.org, a multimedia production company. In 2010 she became a visiting professor at Stanford University’s Graduate Program in Journalism.
• Jim Miller Jr. made photos for more than 22 years for The Washington Missourian, which was published by his father. His photos of people great and ordinary earned him accolades from local and state associations.
Miller attended the University of Missouri, served in the Korean War, and then moved to Kansas City, where he worked for The Star and for broadcast stations. Later he worked for radio stations in New York and Indiana. He also was a freelance photographer while working for broadcast stations.
Miller had made photographs for The Missourian while in high school, and he returned to Washington and the newspaper in 1964. Photo assignments kept him busy seven days a week, and he passed his darkroom expertise on to those who assisted him.
He was 58 when he died in 1987.
