William John Lang Jr. (October 7, 1914 – January 21, 1968) was an American journalist and a bureau head for Life magazine. Early career Lang was born on the south side of Chicago. While attending the University of Chicago in 1936, he wrote for the Chicago Daily News and "campus stories" for Time on a part-time basis. Six months later, he was summoned to New York City to work for Time and Life on a regular basis. In both 1936 and 1940 he covered the Presidential campaigns of James Farley. While in Washington D.C., Lang met an old classmate, Kay Meyer (who later became Katharine Graham) of The Washington Post and Newsweek. The two dated for a while, but broke off the relationship due to conflicting interests. In December 1940, Lang had an opportunity to get an interview with Massachusetts Congressman George Tinkham who showed Lang his trophies from his safaris in Kenya. World War II During World War II, Lang became Bureau Head in Algiers, Italy, Paris, and Berlin. He also became friends with Bill Mauldin, Ernie Pyle, George Silk, John Steinbeck and Robert Capa. During the war, he wrote many biographies, including those of Lucian Truscott, Bill Mauldin, J. Elmer Spyglass, Creighton Abrams, and Canadian manufacturer Ludger Dionne. Lang was the first American reporter in Tunis after the Battle of the Kasserine Pass. Later that same year, he followed the battle campaign of General George S. Patton in Sicily. On October 7, 1943, Lang was nearly killed in the Naples post office explosion. Later that month, he was commended by General Matthew B. Ridgway for his professionalism during his stay with the 82nd Airborne Division. It is said that General Ridgeway considered Lang to be an honorary member of the Division. After D-Day, he had lunch with Mary Welsh Hemingway, the 4th wife of Ernest Hemingway. Later on, he filed a report on The Battle of the Bulge alongside Col. Creighton Abrams, in which Abrams later mentioned in an article of Stars and Stripes. Post-war After the war, Lang continued his reporting in Europe and wrote reports on the rebuilding of Berlin and the fall of The Iron Curtain. During this time, in January 1948, his daughter Luisa was born. The Lang family's happiness was cut short in June when they heard of the Berlin Blockade. Lang was able to smuggle his family into France before the borders