Rocco Morabito
Encyclopedia
Rocco Morabito was an American photographer who spent the majority of his career at the Jacksonville Journal
.
His 1967 award-winning photo
entitled "Kiss of Life" showed a utility worker, J.D. Thompson, suspended on a utility pole and giving mouth to mouth resuscitation to a fellow lineman, Randall G. Champion, who was unconscious and hanging upside down after contacting a high voltage line. Champion survived and lived until 2002, when he died of heart failure at the age of 64. Thompson is still living. The photograph was published in newspapers around the world.
Morabito, born in Port Chester, New York
, moved to Florida when he was 5, and by age 10 was working as a newsboy, selling papers for the Jacksonville Journal.
He served in World War II
in the Army Air Forces
as a ball-turret gunner on a B-17. After the war, he returned to the Jacksonville Journal and started his photography career shooting sporting events for the paper. He worked for the Journal for 42 years, 33 of them as a photographer, until retiring in 1982.
He died on April 5, 2009 while in hospice care.
Jacksonville Journal
Jacksonville Journal is a now-defunct afternoon newspaper in the Jacksonville, Florida area. It began publication as the Metropolis in 1887. Renamed The Florida Metropolis in the early 1900s, it was renamed the Jacksonville Journal in 1922 upon its purchase by John H. Perry. The Journal's new...
.
His 1967 award-winning photo
1968 Pulitzer Prize
-Journalism awards:*Public Service:** the Riverside Press-Enterprise, for its exposé of corruption in the courts in connection with the handling of the property and estates of an Indian tribe in California, and its successful efforts to punish the culprits....
entitled "Kiss of Life" showed a utility worker, J.D. Thompson, suspended on a utility pole and giving mouth to mouth resuscitation to a fellow lineman, Randall G. Champion, who was unconscious and hanging upside down after contacting a high voltage line. Champion survived and lived until 2002, when he died of heart failure at the age of 64. Thompson is still living. The photograph was published in newspapers around the world.
Morabito, born in Port Chester, New York
Port Chester, New York
Port Chester is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The village is part of the town of Rye. As of the 2010 census, Port Chester had a population of 28,967...
, moved to Florida when he was 5, and by age 10 was working as a newsboy, selling papers for the Jacksonville Journal.
He served in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in the Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
as a ball-turret gunner on a B-17. After the war, he returned to the Jacksonville Journal and started his photography career shooting sporting events for the paper. He worked for the Journal for 42 years, 33 of them as a photographer, until retiring in 1982.
He died on April 5, 2009 while in hospice care.