Photojournalist Bill Luster of the Louisville Courier-Journal, a past president of the National Press Photographers Association who for several decades has chaired multiple committees, annual events, and professional efforts for NPPA since he first joined the organization in 1965, is the 2010 recipient of NPPA’s Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award, the organization’s highest honor.

“As a young photographer just beginning in the business and working in my hometown of Glasgow in 1965, NPPA was my lifeline,” Luster told News Photographer magazine when he learned that he’ll be receiving the Sprague Award.

“The organization had terrific educational seminars and I took advantage of every one I could get to. NPPA really made a difference in my career. Many individuals involved in the organization have always been very good to me, and I’ve always believed in giving back. I’ve been very fortunate to have been employed by the Bingham family, who once owned the Courier-Journal, and Gannett, the paper’s current owner. They have been very generous over the years in allowing me to pursue and promote NPPA educational venues for others.”

Luster says he was surprised when NPPA president Bob Carey called him with news of the Sprague Award. “I was very delighted, but surprised and humbled,” Luster said. “I had no idea!”

Established in 1949, the Sprague Award recognizes individuals who advance and elevate photojournalism by their conduct, initiative, leadership, and skill, or for unusual service or achievement beneficial to photojournalism and technological advances. It honors Joseph A. Sprague, a press technical representative for the Graflex Corporation, who is credited with designing the Big Bertha, Magic Eye, and Combat Camera for the company as well as dozens of improvements and refinements to the original Graflex Speed Graphic 4×5 camera, once the press industry standard.

“Bill Luster is a great man with a great career and an even greater devotion to NPPA,” Honors & Recognition Committee chair and NPPA past president Tony Overman said when making the announcement.

“As a young photographer, to me Bill Luster was the NPPA.”

Luster was NPPA’s president in 1993-1994, and in 2000 he was presented with the Joseph Costa Award for his innovative leadership of the organization. For 12 years, Luster chaired NPPA’s Flying Short Course and for another 12 years he was the administrator for the NPPA-Nikon Documentary Sabbatical Grant. He was also the editor of Region 4’s magazine from 1965 through 1968. Luster has been the Kentucky News Photographer of the Year five times and in 2010 he won the title of Sports Photographer of the Year from the Kentucky Press Photographers Association. In 2000, he was named the Visual Journalist of the Year by Western Kentucky University.

In 1976, Luster and other members of the photography staff led by C. Thomas Hardin at the Louisville Courier-Journal won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for their visual coverage of the chaos surrounding court ordered busing by the school system as part of the civil rights battle for desegregation. In 1989, they won another Pulitzer, this one for local reporting, for the news and photography department’s coverage of the nation’s worst drunk driving accident which occurred in nearby Carrollton, KY. And in 1984, Luster was awarded the Clarion Award for Environmental Reporting for various parts of his portfolio that document the impact of acid rain in Europe.

Currently working as a staff photojournalist, Luster has played a variety of roles at the Courier-Journal over the years, including being the newspaper’s director of photography, photography editor, and chief photographer. He joined the Courier-Journal staff in 1969 after working four years at The Glasgow (KY) Daily Times, his hometown newspaper.

Luster has covered 45 Kentucky Derby horse races, four national political conventions, four presidential inaugurations, and was an official photographer for the inauguration of President George H.W. Bush. Over the years he’s also enjoyed exclusive access to three U.S. Presidents in the Oval Office, covering Presidents Gerald R. Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.

In addition to his newspaper work, Luster has photographed two stories for National Geographic magazine and numerous assignments for National Geographic Traveler magazine. His pictures have appeared in Time, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, Life, The New York Times Magazine, and The Washington Post Magazine.

Luster is an active member of the Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, where he lives with his wife of 33 years, Linda, and their dog Charlie, 9. Their son, Joseph, is a freelance writer living in Hoboken, NJ.  His mother, Betty Goddard Hall, resides in Glasgow so Bill and his family are regular visitors to the community.

In addition to the Sprague Award, NPPA will be presenting the organization’s other top annual honors at a special dinner at the conclusion of Convergence ’10 in Charleston, SC, on Saturday, July 10, at the Francis Marion Hotel in the historic harbor city. At that time NPPA’s Honors & Recognition Committee will present the Joseph Costa Award, the Robert F. Garland Educator Award, the Cliff Edom Award, the Jim Gordon Editor of the Year Award, and other top honors.

Registration for Convergence ’10 in Charleston, SC, from July 8-10, 2010, is available online now. The first 75 people registered for Convergence ’10 will be eligible for a drawing to win a free Apple iPad at the event.