It is with great sadness we share that Harry Austin — a longtime Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter and a former editor of this page, the Chattanooga Times — passed away on Thursday at the age of 79 in Chattanooga, where he was born and raised.
He is survived by his partner, Kristy Huntley, two daughters and one grandson.
Spending nearly four decades with the newspaper, first at the Chattanooga Times and through its merger into the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Austin worked as copy editor, reporter and eventually as Times editor until he retired in 2013.
“I am sorry to hear that he has left us,” said Pam Sohn, Austin’s successor as the Times editor until her retirement in 2023. “He was a reporter, a news man, for a number of years before he became an editorial writer, and I think that gave him a great deal of credibility in the community.”
Indeed, since making his foray into opinion writing in 1988 and taking the mantle of Times editor in 1999, Austin, using the body of knowledge he built as a reporter, was a fierce and credible advocate for transparent government, environmental protections, investment in public education and most of all, equality.