Lawrence DiVizio

Lawrence DiVizio has worked for the past 30-years in the news gathering business in print media. He began his career as a photojournalist, becoming Chief Photographer of Associated Newspapers in Michigan. As a photographer he covered stories ranging from U.S. Presidents to local parades. But one constant has remained throughout his career, his love and understanding of the outdoors.

When he was not on the trails backpacking, he focused his journalistic talents on reporting stories of local interest.

As his career progressed, he became acutely aware of the need to tell the story in more than images and this is when he moved on to writing news stories and columns about the events he had attended as a photojournalist. He has written a number of stories on police special operations having taken part in advanced training programs with SWAT and Anti-terrorist teams. With this knowledge he has many times accompanied local, state and federal authorities on operations often times deemed too dangerous for the untrained to take part in. It was through his first hand observations and reporting that readers were able to find out just what law enforcement authorities go through and at the same time see the social-economic conditions many in our country are forced to live under.

He was honored with a variety of awards for his coverage of police operations for both his photography and journalistic skills.

Moving on to a standard reporting beat at the News Herald Newspapers, he tackled issues that gained national importance. From the story about the death of a young girl poisoned by GHB (Date Rape Drug), the teen murder of a local high school student or the murder of an abusive father by his sons, he has reported on the more disturbing side of society. Through his reporting he has peered into the very mind of those who society strains to understand. Once again he was honored with awards on a variety of occasions by the Michigan Press Association for reporting and photography on these issues.

Moving on he focused on a variety of public health issues including depression, suicide, teen mental illness, food contamination and the vaccines used in protecting the general public from disease outbreaks. On the political front he has hosted a public forum attended by members of the national campaign in this century’s most contested election - George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore.

Never forgetting his love and commitment to the outdoors, he reported as part of a team on the proposed development of one of the last existing wetlands in Michigan and individually on a controversial waste injection project proposed for development. Once again through his reporting and editorial columns he was nominated for various awards.

He then moved on to the position of Editor at The Ile Camera Newspaper in Grosse Ile Michigan. He then directly worked to help reestablish it as one of those publications with the highest subscription percentages in the nation. Working along with the information technology department of Heritage Newspapers, he helped bring his publication on line as the first in the newspaper chain to do full online production. From writing the stories to the final proofs, all steps could be accomplished on line. This was at a time when other publications in the chain continued to be forced to produce hard copy in order to generate the finished product.

After his departure from Heritage Newspapers, he returned to his first and most important journalistic love, the outdoors, with the establishment of the Michigan Hiker website. It is from here that he has published on line stories relating to the outdoors and has written for a number of publications across South Eastern Michigan.

He has lectured to a variety of adult and youth outdoors groups regarding the environment and the skill needed to solo backpack trails across the mid-west.

While not writing about or photographing the outdoors, you will find him on backcountry trails from the south shore of Lake Superior to the Rocky Mountains in Montana and Wyoming.