Will Counts graduated from Arkansas State Teachers College, now the University of Central Arkansas, in 1953.
Counts had an outstanding career in photojournalism and teaching. He was a photojournalist for the Arkansas Democrat from 1957-60 and covered the desegregation crisis at Little Rock Central High School.
Counts’ picture of Alex Wilson, an African American reporter, being kicked in the stomach was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and is said to be what influenced President Dwight Eisenhower to send the 101st Airborne to Little Rock at the time. Counts’ 1957 photograph of Central High School students Hazel Bryan Massery and Elizabeth Eckford was named one of the best 100 photos of the century by the Associated Press.
Counts was a visiting professor at UCA in 1997. He and his wife, Vivian, were instrumental in arranging a reunion of Massery and Eckford, and his pictures of the reconciliation were displayed prominently during commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School
On Nov. 9, 1999, former President Bill Clinton presented the Little Rock Nine with the Congressional Gold Medal minted with Counts’ picture of them entering the high school in 1957.
Counts was the author of the first article on photojournalism to be published in The Encyclopedia Britannica in 1968. As of July 2008, six of Counts’ students had received a total of seven Pulitzer Prizes.
The honorary Doctor of Communication degree was awarded posthumously to Counts on July 25, 2008.