Pulitzer Prize winner, former Westminster board member John Harrison dies at 91

While here, Harrison served on several boards, including the Carter Center’s Board of Councilors, the High Museum of Art and the Westminster Schools, a position from which he resigned when school leaders refused to change the policy of hiring only Christian faculty.

During his tenure at the Atlanta private school, he argued against those faculty hiring practices, which had prompted some colleges and universities to stop sending prospective teachers to Westminster. In 1993, after months of pressure, the school board agreed that faculty members of other faiths could be hired who “have a deep respect for Christian principles.”

The decision led the Atlanta chapter of the American Jewish Committee to honor Harrison for his “courage and determination in combating bigotry and discrimination.”

Harrison also served as chairman of Visitors of Emory University and as a trustee of the Kennesaw State University Foundation. He belonged to the Piedmont Driving Club and the Capital City Club.

But his life started in the Midwest.

He was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 8, 1933. Harrison later graduated from two schools in the Northeast: Phillips Exeter Academy in 1951 and Harvard College in 1955 with a degree in English literature.

After graduating, he married Lois Cowles, the daughter of media mogul Gardner Cowles Jr., who was the president of the Register and Tribune Company, owner of the Des Moines Register and founder of Look magazine.

As a newsman, Harrison started in 1956 at the News-Tribune in Fort Pierce, Florida, before moving to New York City a year later to work for Look. After performing various roles in operations and accounting, Harrison was asked by Cowles to go back to Fort Pierce as publisher.

In 1962, with Harrison leading the negotiations, Cowles Communications bought the Gainesville Sun. Three years later, Harrison won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing for championing federal urban renewal funds to improve deplorable housing conditions in the city’s Black neighborhoods.

Harrison eventually convinced New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger to purchase additional smaller newspapers in the South. It was a time of transition in the industry as newspapers were being sold from families to chains to modernize equipment and reduce costs.

Within a year of the Cowles sale, The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group started. Harrison, who would rise to president, assisted in acquiring 33 regional newspapers. As a reward for Harrison’s service, Sulzberger got him a seat on the board of the International Herald Tribune, where he served from 1973 to 1990.

But Harrison viewed his crowning achievement as purchasing the sought-after Sarasota Herald-Tribune from the Lindsay family in 1982, according to his obituary. The newspaper became one of the most profitable in the group.

Harrison, who once estimated he spent 60% of his work week on the road visiting the regional newspapers, retired in 1993.

In 2000, he married health care consultant Bonnie Anderson and the couple moved to Osprey, a small community near Sarasota. His celebration of life will be held in Sarasota in late October.

He is survived by his wife; brother Frank; daughter Lois E. Harrison; son Gardner Mark Harrison; granddaughter Lois J. Harrison; stepson Michael Anderson; and stepdaughter Jennifer Stuart. He was preceded in death by sons Kent in 1981 and Pat in 2025.