Commemorative street sign unveiled in honor of late SF photojournalist Joe Rosenthal

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A commemorative street sign in honor of the late photojournalist Joe Rosenthal was unveiled Thursday in San Francisco, on Sutter and Mason streets. Rosenthal won a Pulitzer Prize for his iconic photo of U.S. Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima during World War II.

"America was suffering through World War II and that picture just showed the American spirit and the sacrifice that was going on in the Pacific," said Retired Lt. General Mike Rocco, President and CEO of the Marines' Memorial Association.

Rosenthal's daughter, San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, and members of The Marines' Memorial Association and Foundation were among those on hand to honor Rosenthal's contributions as a photojournalist who covered WWII and captured life in the city.

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"I hope that people will wonder, who was Joe Rosenthal, and they will look it up and they will see these incredible pictures of folks in Chinatown on a rent strike in 1977, the gondola that used to be out by The Great Highway," Peskin said. "They will see pictures of kids coming out of the last day of school in San Francisco public schools, and of course, the famous Marines raising of the flag at Iwo Jima."

"He went to work at the San Francisco Chronicle and stayed there for 35 years," said Tom Graves, chapter historian of the Joe Rosenthal chapter of the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association. "So he photographed the day to day life of the city, everything from sporting events to the first day of school to visiting dignitaries."

Graves said he had the idea for the street sign and got support to make it happen.

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"I finally took up the cause and my colleagues passed it unanimously," Peskin said, adding he introduced legislation for the street sign.

It took a few years for it all to happen.

"It feels fantastic," Graves said.