George de Carvalho

San Francisco Chronicle
May 6, 1952

George de Carvalho of The Chronicle won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting yesterday.

He received journalism’s highest honor for a series of stories last fall on the Communist China ransom racket which extorted millions of dollars from Chinese living in the United States.

It was the fourth time in the 35-year history of the prizes that The Chronicle, as a newspaper and through the work of its members, has been cited for outstanding merit.

De Carvalho’s award honors him for a series which he began as a Chronicle reporter in San Francisco. He is now a member of The Chronicle’s Washington Bureau and continues to report late developments of the ransom story, in addition to his daily reporting of other events in the national capital.

Only last Saturday it was announced from Atlantic City that de Carvalho won the National Headliners’ Club award for the best “exclusive major domestic news story” of 1951. This, also, was received for the ransom racket series, as were earlier citations from the Association of Catholic Newsmen of San Francisco and the Heywood Broun Award Committee.

By his winning of the Pulitzer Prize, de Carvalho has received an honor which will remain with him all his life. He joins an exclusive fraternity which is renowned for achievement, accuracy, hard work and expert craftsmanship.

Previously awards were made to The Chronicle and its staff members as follows:

Royce Brier received the award for the most distinguished example of a reporter’s work during 1933 for his dramatic account of the San Jose lynching of the Hart kidnapers. His column, “This World Today,” appears on The Chronicle’s editorial page.

The Chronicle received honorable mention in the competition for “the most distinguished and meritorious American newspaper during the year 1939.” It was cited for its part in settlement of the ship clerks’ and warehouse strikes. Paul C. Smith, editor of The Chronicle, played a direct role in achieving settlement of differences through mediation.

Stanton Delaplane was awarded the 1942 Pulitzer Prize for a distinguished example of a reporter’s work in his coverage of the threatened secession of five Northern California and Oregon counties. He is now a peregrinating journalist and author of the “Postcard” column in The Chronicle.

 In addition, Joe Rosenthal, a Chronicle photographer, received a Pulitzer Prize for his historic picture — taken while he was employed by Associated Press — of the U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima in February, 1945.

Yesterday’s prizes, which are awarded annually by Columbia University out of a $2,500,000 bequest from the late Joseph Pulitzer, were announced in New York. Winning journalists each receive $1000.

De Carvalho, 31-year-old reporter, who has traveled considerably throughout the world, was born in Hong Kong and educated at Gonzaga College in Shanghai and the Sorbonne in Paris.

He joined The Chronicle on July 4, 1938, as a copyboy, and in April, 1939, became a rewrite man for This World section.

He spent three years with the U.S. Army in World War II and served overseas with the 82d Airborne Division as a staff sergeant. He made two combat jumps, fought through four campaigns and was wounded four times.

After coming out of the war with U.S., French and Belgian citations, de Carvalho covered Western Europe from the channel to the Polish border on a six-month tour as correspondent for The Chronicle.

He became a cityside reporter in January, 1950. Early in the next year he was sent to Korea by The Chronicle and wrote a series of vivid articles about Americans fighting in the war zone.