Michael Williamson (photographer)

Michael Williamson b. 1957, is an American photojournalist who has won two Pulitzer Prizes. With writer Dale Maharidge, he is co-author of the book And Their Children After Them, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1990. That book, and another written with Maharidge, Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass, were produced while both men were on the staff of the Sacramento Bee. Singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen credited Journey to Nowhere as an inspiration for two songs from his album The Ghost of Tom Joad, "Youngstown" and "The New Timer". The book was re-released in 1995 with a forward by Springsteen.

Other books by Maharidge and Williamson are: "The Last Great American Hobo" (1993), "Homeland", and "Denison, Iowa".

In 1993, Williamson became a staff photographer for the Washington Post. Photos he took on assignment in Kosovo, along with the work of Post colleagues Carol Guzy and Lucian Perkins, led to Williamson's share of another Pulitzer in 2000. That same year, he was named Photographer of the Year by the White House News Photographer's Association.

Michael Williamson

Michael Williamson may refer to:

Michael Williamson (swimmer)

Michael Williamson (born February 5, 1981) is an Irish former swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. He won a bronze medal in the 200 m breaststroke at the 2003 Summer Universiade in Daegu, South Korea with a time of 2:15.52.

Williamson qualified for the men's 200 m breaststroke at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, by achieving a FINA A-standard entry time of 2:14.18 from the British Olympic trials in Sheffield. He challenged seven other swimmers on the sixth heat, including top medal favorites Brendan Hansen of the United States and Dániel Gyurta of Hungary. He raced to sixth place by more than a second behind Gyurta's teammate Richárd Bodor, outside his entry time of 2:15.75. Williamson failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed twenty-second overall in the preliminaries.

Three months after the Games, Williamson announced his retirement from swimming, following a controversy which questioned and rattled his Olympic bid.

References

Michael Williamson (Australian unionist)

Michael Alexander Williamson (born 26 June 1953) is an Australian former trade union official implicated in the Health Services Union of Australia (HSU) expenses scandal. In October 2013 Williamson pleaded guilty to two charges of fraud totaling nearly A$1 million, one charge of fabricating invoices and another charge of recruiting others to hinder a police investigation. The same day that he pleaded guilty, Williamson declared himself bankrupt. An earlier independent report commissioned by the union detailed that companies associated with Williamson and his family had allegedly fraudulently received more than $5 million from the union in period from 2006 to 2011. In the NSW District Court in March 2014, Williamson was sentenced to seven–and–a–half years of imprisonment; with a non–parole period of five years.

Biography

Williamson rose to prominence as an official of the HSU, representing the interests of low-paid workers in the health sector in New South Wales and then Australia. Williamson was general secretary of HSU NSW branch, later to become HSUeast, serving in this role between 1997 until June 2012. He was elected as the inaugural national president of the union in 2003 until October 2011. During his term as national president he controversially merged the NSW and two Victorian branches of the union to create HSUeast. He was elected as the national president of the Australian Labor Party, serving between 2009 and 2010; and was a vice president of NSW Labor. Williamson was also a vice president of Unions NSW until April 2012, when he resigned after being asked to explain to its executive why he should not be removed. He was a member of the national executive of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU); a trustee of First State Super; and a non-executive director of SGE Credit Union, a credit union for NSW Government employees.