T. George Harris was born in Simpson County, Kentucky, on October 4, 1924, the son of Luna Byrum and Garland Harris. He attended public schools in Trenton, Kentucky, where he was valedictorian of his high school graduating class, having been editor of the school paper, a debater, a member of the basketball team, and an Eagle Scout. He won two “citizen's awards” in addition to being voted the “Best all-round Boy and Best Personality” in his senior year.
In 1943, Harris entered the army as a private and soon was promoted to sergeant in Intelligence and Reconnaissance. On December 14, 1944, he received a battlefield commission in Belgium for “assuming leadership while under fire” and was made 1st lieutenant on May 15, 1945. His decorations included the Bronze Star, Air Medal, Oak Leaf Cluster and three campaign stars.
After being discharged from service in 1945, he enrolled at the University of Kentucky under the G.I. Bill. While there he maintained an A average and received the Bennett Historical Research Award in 1946. In 1947, he transferred to Yale University, where he was a Silliman Student Council vice-president, president of the Political Union, freshman chairman of the American Veterans Committee, and a National Student Association delegate. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1949 and studied at Oxford that summer on a fellowship.
Mr. Harris' journalistic career began while still in high school, when he obtained an after school job at twelve dollars a week as a “printer's devil” for a small daily in Clarksville, Tennessee. For an eight-month period after high school graduation he worked as a news reporter for the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle. While at the University of Kentucky, he produced two programs a week for radio station WLAP in Lexington, Kentucky. During summer vacations he edited a six-page county weekly and at the same time was a “string” correspondent for the Nashville Banner. In the summer of 1948, he edited four newspapers in Clarksville, Gallatin, Springfield and Dover, Tennessee.
After completing his studies at Oxford in the fall of 1949, Harris joined the staff of Time magazine as one of its first editorial trainees. In the years that followed, he covered every major region in the United States, working in Chicago, Dallas, New York, Atlanta, Washington, and San Francisco. He was a contributing editor for Time, 1949-1955 and 1958-1960; midwest bureau chief, 1955-1958; and northwest bureau chief, 1960-1962.
Between 1962 and 1968, Harris was a senior editor for Look magazine. While with Look, he was recipient of the first annual award in a writing
competition in economics sponsored by the University of Missouri and the Independent Natural Gas Association. He received a trophy and one thousand dollars for his article, “Automation: We Can Handle It,” which appeared in Look on January 12, 1965.
In 1968, Harris became involved in starting a new magazine, Careers Today, on the west coast. He became editor-in-chief in 1969 of the magazine Psychology Today. He was also an editor to the Harvard Business Review, founder of American Health magazine and the PBS TV series Bodywatch.
During Michigan Governor George Romney's 1968 campaign for president, Harris convinced Romney to release his personal tax returns. Harris wrote a biography on him titled Romney's Way: A Plan and an Idea.
Harris was married to the former Sheila Hawkins in 1953. She died in 1977. They had four children. Harris died October 23, 2013 in La Jolla, California.
