Harris an active editor, resident

Few Augusta newspaper editors combined the charm, wit, drive and news sense of Louis Carl Harris.

He gave counsel to generals and senators. Promoted Augusta in print and in his travels, and became one of the city's most popular representatives and ambassadors. When the important people of his generation came to the Garden City, usually Louis Harris was the one designated to show them around. Three decades after his death, the Augusta West Rotary Club still honors his memory with an annual award presented to a member of the Augusta news media.

Born in 1912, Harris' first newspaper job was as a carrier for the Montgomery Advertiser at age 19.

A year later, he came to The Augusta Chronicle as an assistant circulation director, and eventually began to work in the newsroom as a reporter, sports and wire editor and staff photographer.

In World War II, he took part in the invasions of North Africa and Sicily. He was awarded the Bronze Star. He joined the staff of Gen. Mark Clark in Italy and served as his press officer.

After the war he returned to Georgia, and eventually Augusta, to begin a quarter-century of service to this community and its newspaper.

As a newspaperman, he was known for giving The Chronicle an active and visible leader, not only in reporting but in public service. As a newspaper executive, Harris was also active as chairman of the Community Chest, much like today's United Way.

He was a member of the Planning Commission, the Kiwanis Club, and an ordained deacon of Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church.

He became the editor of The Chronicle in 1959, holding that title until his death in 1978.

Harris was an active editor, using his military and personal contacts to travel the post-war globe and to personally report on the events that were changing it.

He was also respected for his editorial leadership during Augusta's journey through the civil rights era. It has been mostly forgotten, but a reading of our newspaper's editorial positions during the 1960s find The South's Oldest Newspaper was a consistent and often criticized voice for acceptance and participation in a new society that was united and not divided by race.

It was a stance not shared with some voices of the community, which wanted to remain separate, and who often wrote bitterly of our newspaper's betrayal of Southern values.

History has proven them wrong, and proven Louis Harris right.