Background
Donald Theodore Ultang was born on March 23, 1917, in Fort Dodge, Iowa, United States.
1952
In 1952 the Des Moines Register photographers Ultang and John Robinson won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Photography, the same year that Herman Wouk won for his novel The Caine Mutiny. The prize recognized a series of six pictures showing a violent on-field assault against an African American player during a college football game: October 20, 1951, in Stillwater, Oklahoma, between host Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University Cowboys) and visiting Drake University Bulldogs. A&M's white Wilbanks Smith placed a hard hit on Drake's black Johnny Bright, breaking his jaw, in an incident caught in a series of images taken by Ultang that earned national attention when they appeared on the front page of The Register. The pictures showed that Smith's hit on Bright happened when Bright was well out of the play. The event came to be known as the "Johnny Bright incident". Despite Ultang and Robinson's irrefutable evidence of the hit, Oklahoma State did not formally apologize for the incident until 2005.
1952
In 1952 the Des Moines Register photographers Ultang and John Robinson won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Photography, the same year that Herman Wouk won for his novel The Caine Mutiny. The prize recognized a series of six pictures showing a violent on-field assault against an African American player during a college football game: October 20, 1951, in Stillwater, Oklahoma, between host Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University Cowboys) and visiting Drake University Bulldogs. A&M's white Wilbanks Smith placed a hard hit on Drake's black Johnny Bright, breaking his jaw, in an incident caught in a series of images taken by Ultang that earned national attention when they appeared on the front page of The Register. The pictures showed that Smith's hit on Bright happened when Bright was well out of the play. The event came to be known as the "Johnny Bright incident". Despite Ultang and Robinson's irrefutable evidence of the hit, Oklahoma State did not formally apologize for the incident until 2005.
(1) A series of six pictures showing a violent on-field assault against an African American player during a college football game: October 20, 1951, in Stillwater, Oklahoma, between host Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University Cowboys) and visiting Drake University Bulldogs.
(2) A series of six pictures showing a violent on-field assault against an African American player during a college football game: October 20, 1951, in Stillwater, Oklahoma, between host Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University Cowboys) and visiting Drake University Bulldogs.
(3) A series of six pictures showing a violent on-field assault against an African American player during a college football game: October 20, 1951, in Stillwater, Oklahoma, between host Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University Cowboys) and visiting Drake University Bulldogs.
(4) A series of six pictures showing a violent on-field assault against an African American player during a college football game: October 20, 1951, in Stillwater, Oklahoma, between host Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University Cowboys) and visiting Drake University Bulldogs.
(5) A series of six pictures showing a violent on-field assault against an African American player during a college football game: October 20, 1951, in Stillwater, Oklahoma, between host Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University Cowboys) and visiting Drake University Bulldogs.
(6) A series of six pictures showing a violent on-field assault against an African American player during a college football game: October 20, 1951, in Stillwater, Oklahoma, between host Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University Cowboys) and visiting Drake University Bulldogs.
Donald Theodore Ultang was born on March 23, 1917, in Fort Dodge, Iowa, United States.
Donald Ultang attended Iowa State University of Science and Technology (1935-1936), and received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, in 1939.
Since 1979 Donald Ultang has been a lecturer in photojournalism at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, as well as freelancing in photography.
Donald Ultang was an insurance executive (1959-1979), managed the news photo department of the Des Moines Register and Tribune (1953-1959), and was a staff photographer and company pilot for that newspaper (1946-1959).
After Donald Ultang retired and spent his winters in New Mexico, he began a second career taking nature and landscape photographs until a few years before his death.
Donald Ultang died in his sleep on September 18, 2008, aged 91.
Quotes from others about the person
According to Tom Maloney in U.S. Camera Annual, Ultang shows the "ability to make one picture representative of all similar situations."