Malcolm Browne

Malcolm Wilde Browne (April 17, 1931 – August 27, 2012) was an American journalist and photographer. His best known work was the award-winning photograph of the self-immolation of Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức in 1963.

Early life
Browne was born and raised in New York City. His mother was a Quaker with fervently anti-war opinions, his father a Roman Catholic and an architect. Browne attended Friends Seminary, a Quaker school in Manhattan from kindergarten through to twelfth grade. He attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and studied chemistry.

Career
Browne's career in journalism began when he was drafted during the Korean War, and assigned to the Pacific edition of the Stars and Stripes where he worked for two years. He worked for the Middletown Times Herald-Record, then joined the Associated Press (AP), working in Baltimore from 1959 to 1961, at which point he was made chief correspondent for Indochina. On June 11, 1963 he took his famous photographs of the death of Thích Quảng Đức. After having won a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting and receiving many job offers, he eventually left the AP in 1965.

He worked for ABC TV for about a year but became dissatisfied with television journalism. He worked freelance for several years, and did a year's fellowship at Columbia University with the Council on Foreign Relations. In 1968, he joined The New York Times, and in 1972 became its correspondent for South America. Before becoming a journalist Browne worked as a chemist, and in 1977, he became a science writer, serving as a senior editor for Discover. He returned to the Times in 1985. He covered the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

Death
Browne died on Monday August 27, 2012, of complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 81.

Awards and recognition

 * World Press Photo of the Year (1963)
 * Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting (1964)
 * George Polk award for courage in journalism
 * Overseas Press Club Award
 * James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public, American Chemical Society (1992)
 * Honorary Member, Sigma Xi (2002)

Works

 * Browne, Malcolm W. Muddy Boots and Red Socks, Random House: New York, 1993, ISBN 0-8129-6352-0 (autobiography)
 * Saigon's Finale (article on U.S. military defeat in Vietnam)
 * The New Face of War (Bobbs-Merrill,Indianapolis, 1965) ISBN 0-553-25894-X. Ground-breaking account of tactics in the Vietnam War.