Pulitzer Prize Recipient Photographer. He had the honor of receiving the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Photography, which was the second year this category had been recognized for the competition. This was the first of dozens of Pulitzer Prize photographs for The Associated Press. His photograph, “Water,” was an image of a begging Indian sailor on a lifeboat without any water for three days after his ship had been torpedoed by Japanese forces. In 1925, he started his photo-journalist career with the “Chicago Daily News” before going on to the “Washington Post,” “Wichita Eagle,” “Kansas City Star,” and “Oklahoma City News.” He served in the United States Army Air Corps as an aerial photographer instructor. He joined with The Associated Press in 1937 staying with them until his retirement in May of 1966. During the Malayan Jungle Campaign, he was a reporter as well as the photographer. When the bombs were being dropped on Pearl Harbor, Noel was in Singapore, China covering an assignment about the British Army stationed there. In January of 1942 in an attempt to flee the area, he took a freighter with 77 other passengers bound for Burma when the Japanese Navy torpedoed the freighter in the Indian Ocean. Trapped in his cabin, he used a heavy chair to break down the door to escape a sinking ship. He, along with five shipmates, fled in a lifeboat without food or water, but with the heat of the tropical sun or storming Monsoon rains. Allied forces did not know that Japanese forces were active in the Indian Ocean. On the third day at sea, another lifeboat came alongside theirs with Indian sailors begging for water, but no one had any to share. At this point, the photographer, who was suffering from Malaria, grabs his camera and takes his black and white Pulitzer Prize photograph of an Indian sailor begging for water. Eventually, his lifeboat reaches Sumatra and the photographer with his camera were rescued. Only 27 of the 77 passengers from the freighter were rescued. Preparing his expense report for Associated Press this trip, Noel simply writes, “One torpedoing at no charge.” As World War II continued, he covered the after-bombing story of Pearl Harbor on the island and other assignments in the Pacific Theater. Later, he went to Burma and India. After the war, he was assigned to the Mediterranean area for four years, with emphasis on the Palestinian Conflict. On July 22, 1946, he escaped with his life, yet lost all of his belongings including his photographic equipment, after a terrorist bombing at his hotel, the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which killed 91 persons. He covered Berlin, Germany during the Cold War. When the Korean War started, he volunteered to cover the war effort traveling with the 1st Marine Division. He was captured and held captive in a Communist POW camp from December 1, 1950 to August 9, 1953. During this captivity, he managed to photograph captured United Nations forces on a Speed Graphic camera. The camera was sent to him under the “Operation Father Christmas” making him the first POW on active duty for Associated Press. He attempted to escape three times, and for this, he spent seven weeks in solitary confinement. Upon his release by the North Koreans, he had a reunion with his wife, Evelyn G., in Tokyo, Japan. They returned to New York, then sent by Associated Press to Florida in 1958, first to Tampa and then by 1961 the State Capital, Tallahassee. He was the first full-time photographer from the Associated Press covering two legislative sessions. After suffering a cerebral vascular accident, he was hospitalized for two months, which followed by brain surgery at the University of Florida Medical Center in Gainsville, where he died of complications of the surgery. Born Francis Evans Noel, he was known professionally as Frank “Pappy” Noel. “Francis Evans” is on his grave marker. His “Operation Father Christmas” story was published in the book “Great New Photos and the Stories Behind Them” by John Faber. Besides being on assignment while in a Communist POW camp, he covered numerous wars on four continents in his career.