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Charlie
Brill was nothing if not enthusiastic.
It
flowed into his teaching, his love of boating, and his devotion
to his Native American friends in Minnesota.
Paul
Tople, long time photographer for the Akron Beacon Journal,
and a Kent JMC graduate and Taylor Award winner, was honored
by the university by having an exhibition of his photography
in the university museum. Among the mentors Tople gives credit
to is Brill. "His enthusiasm was contagious," declared
Tople, a photojournalism major. (See Tople's work here.)
Another
former student, Gary Harwood, now KSU photography coordinator,
told the Daily Kent Stater that Charlie was passionate about
photography and not hesitant to frankly evaluate student work.
"One
of the things that I liked about Charlie is that he wasn't
shy, and sometimes that hurt. But he was also very complimentary
about things that did work," Harwood said.
Prof.
Greg Moore, who worked 22 years with Brill, said his Basic
Black and White Photography course "has been the foundation
for my own version of this course for over thirty years. Charlie
was a superb motivator of students, both majors and non-majors.
His door was always open."
Jim
Gordon, who retired recently as editor of the NPPA magazine
and as a photography professor at Bowling Green State University,
remembers his first meeting with Charlie:
In
my first or second year of teaching, I recall making a visit
to Charlie at Kent for inspiration and guidance. It was early
on in his teaching career at Kent and I was impressed by his
background as a Minneapolis Tribune photographer for six years
and the enthusiasm I witnessed in my visit with him."
Prof.
Joe Harper, a former director of the Kent JMC school, called
Brill "an outstanding teacher and a tremendous advocate
for the photojournalism program …. Charlie truly brought
our photography program into the photojournalism age."
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Charlie
Brill at home in Paradise, Mich.
Photo courtesy of JMC Reunion Site
http://jmc-reunion2000.freeservers.com/about.html
Harper
declared that "of all the people I've worked with in
more than 40 years in journalism and journalism education,
Charlie taught me, a word person, more about photography
and the use of photographs than anyone else I have worked
with."
On
the other hand, Harper also recalls Charlie not being "shy"
about expressing his strong views about photography and
the teaching of same.
In
the late 1980s, some faculty members were suggesting that
the Basic Black & White photography class be changed
to teach students about flash lighting and to focus more
on human subjects.
That
lit a match for Charlie, and the issue came to a head at
a faculty meeting.
"Charlie
stalked out of the faculty meeting," Harper remembers.
"He came back with a stack of photos his students had
taken, stood in the middle of the room and threw the photos
on the floor, face up, to make the point his students in
Basic wouldn't learn enough to produce such excellent photographs
if they had to fiddle with flashes and people," Harper
said.
Charlie's
point won the day, and Harper declares today, "Charlie's
temper and passion for photojournalism were an integral
part of Charlie the teacher and mentor for hundreds of photojournalists."
Read
more of Charlie's story
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