Casey Westbrook - Kansas State University

Accomplished photojournalist returns to
K-State to address some unfinished business
When Pete Souza — national photographer for
the Chicago Tribune’s Washington, D.C.,
bureau — left Kansas State University in 1979 to
pursue a career in photojournalism, he was just one
project shy of his master’s degree in journalism and
mass communications.
Souza never planned to end up at K-State specifically, but
instead sought a graduate school that could provide a teaching
assistantship to help cover tuition. K-State fit the bill.
“Don Holt interviewed me on the phone and then offered
me the job,” said Souza, who earned his B.S. in public
communications from Boston University. “I didn’t know what
I was getting myself into and all my friends thought I was
crazy, but I packed up my Volvo and drove out to Kansas.”
Loose Ends
by Jami Weisbender ’01
Near the end of his graduate program, Souza felt the tug
of a new career more than the pull of his final school project.
“I didn’t quite finish it up,” Souza said. “And at the time,
the degree itself wasn’t that important to me. It was more
important for me, at least in my mind, to get started working
full time as a photojournalist.”
Over the last 28 years, Souza not only succeeded in
making a living as a photographer, but also built a resume
full of impressive credentials. After stints at the Hutchinson
(Kan.) News, the Chanute (Kan.) Tribune and the Chicago
Sun-Times, he landed in the White House as the official
photographer for President Ronald Reagan in June 1983, just
four years after departing from K-State to chase his dream.
Souza stayed on as White House photographer until
the end of Reagan’s presidency in 1989. Since then, he
has photographed for National Geographic
Magazine and Life Magazine, and he has
published three books. Souza’s coverage of
President Reagan and, more recently, Illinois
Senator Barack Obama, has earned him national
recognition.
Still, for a long time Souza could not forget
the one endeavor from his past that he had not
completed: his master’s degree from K-State.
“I just started regretting that it was sort of
one thing left undone, and I wanted to see if
there was a way that I could finish and make it
official,” he said.
“Over the years I’ve done a lot with
K-State,” he continued. “We (K-State-affiliated
photojournalists) did a book in 1986 for the
University (“A Week at Kansas State”). We’ve
done numerous photojournalism workshops
and I’m on the Journalism School Advisory
Council. I’ve always felt a part of K-State and I think that
they feel the same about me.”
In 2005, this lasting connection to K-State led Souza to
approach the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass
Communications about completing his master’s degree.
“For the final credits, they asked me to put together an
exhibit for the university…sort of a mid-career retrospective,
what I’ve done up to this point in my career,” Souza
recalled. “They also asked if I would be willing to speak at
graduation.”
4 CONNECTIONS — SUMMER 2007