Paul Schuhmann, WKU and College Heights Herald alum, died in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday, Oct. 10, at 79 years old.
Schuhmann left behind a legacy as a photographer and donor to WKU Student Publications.
Schuhmann met his wife, Ellen, when they were both students at WKU, working at the College Heights Herald. Following her passing in 2010, Schuhmann began the Paul and Ellen Schuhmann Student Publications Scholarship fund for journalism and photojournalism with a $100,000 donation.
Now, the Paul and Ellen Schuhmann Fellowship program also provides students with opportunities for newsroom experience during summers between semesters. For 10 years the fellowship put students at the Courier-Journal, where Schuhmann worked for 30 years. Starting in 2026, students will work with the Charlotte Observer.
Schuhmann’s daughter Robin Stanton said that providing these opportunities for students was important because of his close connection to the university.
“His love of my mom and photography all started at Western,” said Stanton. “That was important for him, to help students who needed some additional assistance in this field that he just loved, and that they together loved.”
Paul Schuhmann started at WKU in 1965 as a pre-veterinary major, according to WKU News. A news photography elective class would eventually lead him to join the College Heights Herald as a photographer in 1967.
While pursuing his master’s degree, Schuhmann continued as a photographer and adviser for the Herald and Talisman and taught photography classes.
Bob Adams taught Schuhmann and was the faculty advisor for the Herald when Schuhmann was a student.
“I taught the first photo class; the next semester, I was the teacher, and he was the real teacher,” Adams said. “I could lecture on basic things, but he was a photographer, and he could teach the important things.”
David Sutherland was one of Schuhmann’s first photography students
“He took me under his guidance, he was my mentor, and we became really, really great friends,” Sutherland said.
Like Schuhmann, Sutherland did not start at Western in photography. Sutherland said Schuhmann’s mentorship turned him from a physicist to a journalist, which changed his life.
“Paul was the first prolific photographer here who really set the standards for really good photography at Student Publications,” Sutherland said. “He set the level of excellence in photography here that still carries in many students who work for the Herald and Talisman today.”
Schuhmann also oversaw the transformation of the Talisman from a standard yearbook full of portraits and group shots into “a reflection of the campus,” Adams said.
Schuhmann’s Talisman “did that for half the book, and then when you flip the book around, it covered what was happening on campus, unlike anything that had been done before.”
The new, award-winning Talisman emphasized student life, including features about noteworthy students, organizations and events on campus and in-depth sports reporting.
“Paul was teaching us not just the style of photography, but the importance of communicating stories,” Sutherland said.
When Schuhmann graduated with his M.A. from WKU in 1971, he went back to his native Louisville and started as a photographer for the Courier-Journal. He won a Southern Photographer of the Year award for a photo he took in 1973.
Schumann won his first Pulitzer Prize with the photographic staff of the Courier-Journal and Times in 1976 for their coverage of the prior year’s riots in Louisville. Court-ordered busing intended to counter the persistent de facto segregation of Jefferson County schools sparked mass demonstrations, some of which turned violent.
Tom Hardin worked with Schuhmann at the Courier-Journal as a photographer and later as Photo Director.
“He could put it to page one very quickly,” Hardin said. “He was a good day-to-day, hard-working photographer.”
In 1988, Schuhmann was called in the middle of the night to cover the infamous bus crash on I-71 near Carrollton, Kentucky.
“He’d be like the first guy you’d send out because he would come back with a picture,” said Pat McDonogh, who worked with Schuhmann at the Courier-Journal. “He was just kind of a bulldog when it came to news photography.”
The Courier-Journal’s staff won a Pulitzer in 1989 for their coverage of the crash. One of Schuhmann’s photos led the front page of the Courier-Journal’s coverage, alongside one from fellow WKU and Herald alum Bill Luster.
Stanton recalled the impact the crash had on her father and said it left a mark on him for many years.
However, Stanton said, not all of her father’s coverage was bad.
Stanton remembered her father sleeping on a mattress in a barn for weeks waiting to capture the birth of a zebra to a surrogate horse mare. That story, and Schuhmann’s photos, drew international attention.
“He kind of said yes to anything when it came to animals,” Stanton said.
Stanton said her father retired from the Courier-Journal after more than 30 years in part because of the physical toll it took on him.
“He was a very physical photographer, and that took a toll on his back, climbing ladders and getting into weird positions,” Stanton said. “And, you know, hanging out of airplanes.”
Stanton shared a story from her childhood where her father took her and her brother with him in an airplane to capture aerial photos of Louisville.
“We had tons of experiences like that, that probably a lot of people didn’t get to do,” Stanton said. “He was always trying to expose us to anything he could.”
“I think it’s amazing that he’s made his mark at Western, and his memory lives on on the hill,” Stanton said.
Schuhmann is survived by his two children and five grandchildren, as well as two brothers.
Visitation for Paul will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 17, at Highlands Funeral Home, 3111 Taylorsville Road, Louisville, KY 40205.
