Background
Joseph John Rosenthal was born on October 9, 1911, in Washington, District of Columbia, United States. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants. Joe Rosenthal had four brothers.
1945
Pulitzer Prize for Photography
USF Campus at sunset
His name was inscribed (across from the memorial sculptor Felix de Weldon's name) on the bottom right side of the front (west side) of the Marine Corps War Memorial in 1982.
Photographer photojournalist reporter
Joseph John Rosenthal was born on October 9, 1911, in Washington, District of Columbia, United States. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants. Joe Rosenthal had four brothers.
Joe Rosenthal graduated from McKinley High School (now McKinley Technology High School) in 1929, and after working as an office boy, he moved to San Francisco where he attended the University of San Francisco for one year and became a reporter-photographer for The San Francisco News in 1932.
Joseph Rosenthal retired from the San Francisco Chronicle, for which he had worked since 1946. Previously to that, he was employed by the Associated Press (1941-1946), New York Times Wide World Photos (1936-1941), Acme Newspictures (1935-1936), San Francisco News (1932-1935) and Newspaper Enterprise Association (N.E.A.) Service Inc. (1930-1932). Joseph Rosenthal also taught photojournalism at City College of San Francisco (1949-1951).
Joseph Rosenthal worked there as a photographer for 35 years, before retiring in 1981. His name was inscribed on the bottom right side of the front (west side) of the Marine Corps War Memorial in 1982. On April 13, 1996, Joseph Rosenthal was named an honorary Marine by the Commandant of the Marine Corps General Charles C. Krulak.
On August 20, 2006, at age 94, Joseph Rosenthal died of natural causes in his sleep at a center for assisted living in Novato, California located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, in northern Marin County. Joseph Rosenthal was cremated.
Joe Rosenthal converted to Catholicism during his youth.