Famous professor, photographer dies

An excellent photojournalist of national renown who shaped, if not changed, history, yet was incredibly modest. A warm hearted, loving and highly dedicated, friend, parent and teacher. A guide, a man who shaped many careers and who allowed and encouraged talent to flourish. A man with a lively sense of humor.\nWill Counts was all of that and more to those who knew him. Counts died of cancer Saturday night at his home in Bloomington at the age of 70. Counts lived in Bloomington since 1960. He retired in 1995, having taught at IU for 32 years.\nHe is survived by his wife Vivian, daughters Claudia Counts and Kate Lattimer and sons Wyett Counts and Robert McRae.\nHis passing will be mourned by many more than just his immediate family. \n"I am very saddened by the passing away of such a wonderful person as Will," said John Ahlhauser, a close friend and a retired journalism professor. "I was full of admiration for what he has accomplished. He was an exciting person to know, always on top of the news and innovative in the way he presented it."\nAhlhauser was with Counts for much of the last few days.\n"In his early photographs, he doesn't look like much more than a boy from high school and that's \npretty much what he was when he took the Little Rock Nine pictures," Ahlhauser said.\nThe images Counts captured during the integration efforts of the Little Rock Central High School earned him lifelong fame.\nCounts was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1957 for the photograph of a single black girl, Elizabeth Ekford, walking amongst a crowd of angry white people. The Associated Press named the photograph as one of the top 100 photographs of the century.\nCounts worked at the Arkansas Democrat in Little Rock as a photographer-editor and at the Associated Press before he began teaching.\n"Will Count's photographs have a life of their own and will outlive Will himself by hundreds of years" said Steve Raymer, an assistant journalism professor.\nCounts was a true news photojournalist, Raymer said.\n"He wasn't one of the pack. He wasn't looking for personal fame and that's what makes his work even more important," Raymer said. \nAnd yet, he was modest.\nUntil President Bill Clinton wrote Counts a letter for his retirement praising his work and his contribution to photojournalism, his daughter Kate Lattimer said she was unaware of her father's fame.\n"I had no idea how important was the work he did -- that he was so famous. Even after, he would always stop me from discussing him and praising him to my friends."\nBesides being modest about his own talent, Counts was appreciative of others' work too.\n"He did not impose his style on his students. Rather he encouraged them to be innovative, to experiment, to discover their own talent," said Trevor Brown, dean of the School of Journalism. \n"He was a pioneer in the field. What's more, he not only told a great story, he liked hearing one too," Brown said. "He was modest but with a lively sense of humor and tremendously committed. He is the reason for the distinguished careers of scores of his students."\nNot least for daughter Claudia Counts, who was a photo editor for The Associated Press.\n"He taught me the important values of life like honesty and integrity. He was the reason I chose photojournalism"