In the nearly 54 years since Lee Anderson became editor of the Chattanooga News-Free Press, the country has fought in wars, endured the Cold War and its aftermath, pushed through the civil rights struggle, seen the assassination of a president and close calls on two others, and weathered a terrorist attack.

Lee Anderson has penned more than 50,000 editorials over his 70-year newspaper career, extolling his brand of constitutional conservatism long before Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan or the modern day tea party championed the cause of a strong military and limited government.