New York Times photojournalist and Cambodian genocide survivor Dith Pran died of pancreatic cancer Sunday at the age of 65. In November 2005, Pran visited the Geneseo campus as part of Cultural Harmony Week.
Pran, a photojournalist for the Times since 1980, survived the bloody genocide of the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. While with the Times, Pran worked with correspondent Sydney Schanberg to cover the events preceding the genocide as well as the fall of the capital, Phnom Penh, to Khmer troops.
Among his other accomplishments, Pran was a Goodwill Ambassador in 1985, had four honorary doctorate degrees, and compiled and published a collection of Cambodians' experiences under the Khmer Rouge as children. He founded The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project and was the recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence and of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1998. His life story was also featured in the Academy Award-winning film "The Killing Fields."