My friend Steve Starr passed away last night due to complications from ALS. He was 79. Steve was a 3rd Order Franciscan brother. But he was best known as a photojournalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for his AP news photo of armed protesters exiting the student union at Cornell after a tense standoff in April ’69.
I know Steve was in process of writing an autobiography, but I’m not sure if he had a chance to finish it. His website, here, shows a selection of his work, which included a stint as personal photographer for Franklin Graham. For my money, Steve’s best shots are ones of children. In particular I remember the photo on his Christmas card one year: It was taken in an Egyptian cave by firelight showing a newborn being held in the air by a jubilant young father. The backstory is that these desperately poor Coptic Christians live in spaces hollowed out underneath huge mounds of garbage on the outskirts of Cairo. I still get goosebumps just thinking about it.
Steve always led Saturday Morning Men’s Bible Study @GSS Episcopal in Colorado Springs. And man, did he ever come prepared. Not that we all always bought in to his beloved evangelical commentaries. But leavened with his sweet spirit? Let’s just say, it was much easier to take than might otherwise have been the case.
An old newsroom joke about the Pulitzer being awarded to him was told, Starr remembers. “Well, now at least the first three words of your obituary are already written,” they told him.
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RIP, Steve. Well done, good and faithful.
But who will bring the Barclays on Saturday mornings now?
“All the darkrness in the world
cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”
— St. Francis of Assisi
More on St. Francis is here.
Well said, my friend.