Milwaukee Photojournalist Dale Guldan, 51, Dies
(May 7, 2005) - Dale Guldan, 51, a staff photojournalist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, died Friday at his home in the Town of Brookfield, WI, the newspaper reported today. He died of a heart attack while exercising in the basement of his home.
Guldan was the Wisconsin News Photographer of the Year four years in row - in 1981, 1982, 1983, and 1984. Only photojournalists Erwin Gebhard and Jim Gehrz won WNPA's top honor more often. He started at The Milwaukee Journal in 1977.
"Dale was one so vibrant who burned so brightly," said Patrick Murphy-Racey, a freelance photojournalist now based in Knoxville, TN, who worked with Guldan in Milwaukee during an internship in 1988. "He was the only guy I ever knew in newspapers that utterly refused to be consumed by them. He always rose above the common complaints found in almost every photography department and did his own creative work to the end. His devotion to his family was self evident to anyone who knew him."
After the December tsunami, Guldan traveled to Sri Lanka in March with a group of Wisconsin college wrestlers who formed a relief organization to help the disaster victims rebuild their lives. A slide show of some of the tsunami images, along with Guldan's own audio narration, is online here. A slide show of Guldan's photographic portfolio for the newspaper over the years is online here.
He is survived by his wife, Joyce, and children Sam, 21, and Sarah, 18. Funeral arrangements are pending. A story about Guldan and his life and photography by Journal Sentinel reporter Tom Held is online here.
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