This Independence Day, as we celebrate the birth of American liberty, let’s pause over one image that captures the spirit of our nation’s essential freedoms.

His name was William A. Wynne: a Cleveland photojournalist, World War II veteran, and lifelong champion of the American story. In the early 1950s, Wynne captured a spontaneous moment that would resonate for decades: “Three Touches of Freedom.”

The photo shows children playing outdoors. A young boy leaps with joy, reaching toward a billowing American flag overhead. Behind him, a transport truck and a church stand as quiet symbols of enterprise and faith. For Wynne, the image embodied three pillars of American liberty: freedom of expression, freedom of enterprise, and freedom of religion. He captured the moment instinctively while photographing the children, just as the boy’s hand reached toward the waving flag.

The image first earned national recognition in the 1950s, when the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge awarded Wynne the prestigious George Washington Honor Medal. It was one of the foundation’s top honors for promoting patriotism, civic responsibility, and the American way of life.

By 1953, Wynne had joined the Cleveland Plain Dealer full time as a news photographer. Before that, he had served in World War II photo reconnaissance as an aerial photographer and, after the war, spent time in Hollywood training dogs for film. The photo gained local acclaim, earning Newspaper Guild honors for Best Picture and Photo of the Year. Today, the original is housed in the William A. Wynne Photography Collection at Cleveland State University’s Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections. Much of his early Plain Dealer work is also preserved through the Cleveland Memory Project.

Wynne’s story runs deeper. During World War II, as a corporal in the 26th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron, he became known as the devoted owner and trainer of “Smoky,” the tiny Yorkshire Terrier rescued from a New Guinea foxhole. For more on that story, see the short film Angel in a Foxhole on Vimeo, or Wynne’s wartime memoir, Yorkie Doodle Dandy.

After the war, his camera became a tool for truth and justice. At the Plain Dealer, he documented Cleveland life with heart and courage. Later, as a NASA research photographer, he contributed to flight icing studies and crash testing. He also captured the first clear still image of a raindrop in motion.

From the battlefields of the Pacific to the streets of Cleveland and the laboratories of NASA, Bill Wynne used his lens to show the quiet strength of a free people. His work reminds us that liberty is not only proclaimed in speeches or marked by holidays. It is lived in ordinary moments: a child reaching for the flag, a community grounded in faith and enterprise, and citizens carrying forward the responsibilities that freedom requires.

This Fourth of July, let “Three Touches of Freedom” call us to remember, to give thanks, and to live worthy of the liberties entrusted to us.

Have a joyful, safe, and reflective Independence Day. May we cherish our freedoms, honor those who defended them, and carry them forward with gratitude.