George Strock: The Prevailing Question Remains....

Photo of Strock while he is taking a photo.
Wikipedia

What happened to George Strock? Not during his photography career, but after? Why has he been such an enigma, in a way, to the history of WWII photography? Surprisingly enough, given Strock's credentials and prior work in his field, his private life has been able to stay (let's say it) more private than some would expect. During my own research for this blog, I made some strange initial discoveries. Being the college student that I am, I was hoping to find some information about his life post-LIFE Magazine and LA Times after I first heard about Strock by doing a search on Wiki. But, interestingly enough, on his Wiki page there isn't too much detail about what occurred following his photography career or even a quick synopsis about how he died. All there is, is a date.

Trying to dive deeper into the issue, I made an attempt to search up details about Strock's cause of death and what occurred following his career at LIFE Magazine, however, my searches didn't seem to bring up anything very significant. His Wikipedia page did have a date of death, listed as August 23, 1977. When I clicked on the link of reference for his death, it took me to a site listed as familysearch.org, however an individual would need an account to access this information and it is not readily available to the public, even with a quick search on the internet.

Once again, on Strock's Wikipedia page, there is a note on Strock's wife, Rose Marie, and his two kids George and William which comes from the United States Census (the link just led me to another Wiki page and I couldn't seem to pin much down), but there isn't much that is expanded on about his personal life, even beyond Wiki, the links for the page that this information came from weren't strong or easily accessible as well.

While I was in my History of U.S. Journalism course at Western Washington University, professor John Harris made a note about Strock having personal struggles with alcoholism. This is one note I was able to follow up, at least to a degree. In the book, "Get the Picture: A Personal History of Photojournalism" by John G. Morris, which can be previewed online at Google Books it is quoted on page 55, coming from a story about the trouble people were having with keeping tabs on Strock:

"Strock was overly fond of alcohol, so we first checked his favorite L.A. bars. No luck. We had given up the search when news arrived that he had somehow made his convoy. A day or so after the convoy's departure, an executive of the Union Pacific Railroad received a letter of commendation for a bartender on the City of San Francisco. It was signed George Strock, War Correspondent."

Maybe this note gives an audience an idea of some of the personal struggles Strock dealt with in his life. Could this be part of the reason why after the war there hasn't been much detailed about him? I couldn't seem to get down to a singular or overarching reason as to why during my own research for this blog project.

I wasn't able to find much after that. A search of Strock's alcoholism surprisingly doesn't yield much. For all intensive purposes, much of the more intimate details of the problems Strock dealt with in regards to alcohol. While in that class that was discussed earlier, there was note about him possibly killing someone in Australia, but I could not find concrete note of this during my research. If more in depth work was done on Strock with his biological family members if someone could get ahold of them, possibly this is a line that could be followed. In an email with Professor Harris, he also let me know he could not find anything concrete about Strock regarding his life after WWII.

However, if this blog gives someone an interest or basis of doing more in depth research about Strock and potentially finding out more about his personal life, his cause of death and what he did in the remaining years in his life post-WWII, perhaps this blog did its job. The one thing that I would want an audience to take away from viewing this blog is that Strock was as effective of a WWII photographer as any other during the war period, although he is not widely known. Not only that, he was a man who wasn't afraid, and survived elements those can only imagine while capturing brutal moments of the realities of war.

In the NY Times article by David W. Dunlap about Strock it is quoted:

"Luck was never more with him than when he was leaving New Guinea, clutching the pictures he had taken under his arm. 'He almost lost them, and his life too, when the plane in which he made the first leg of the homeward trip climbed into a tree on the takeoff from Port Moresby,' Time's in-house 'F.Y.I.' newsletter reported on March 3, 1943."

Strock kept bravery with him, and was able to deliver something special and eye-opening during the war in the battles he followed, but also was able to build up an impressive library before he even stepped foot on the battlefield in WWII. Thank you for viewing.


Post Bibliography:

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Strock#cite_note-dunlap-1

-https://books.google.com/books?id=QzM2EjoCWGcC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=george%20strock&f=false

-https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/a-photo-that-was-hard-to-get-published-but-even-harder-to-get/?_r=0