Harrison Smith

I edit and write obits for @washpost, chronicling the lives of remarkable people. Get in touch at [email protected]

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

We'll be publishing these stories every two weeks, highlighting everyday but extraordinary people and the legacies they leave behind. Submit here👇 https://t.co/l7BVnMLsBI

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

We're launching something new on the obits desk today: What We Remember, a series of short essays in which readers reflect on a friend or family member who's recently died. These pieces can be funny, moving, tender or outrageous — whatever captures the person’s spirit.

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

Working out of the NIH, Judith Rapoport helped introduce the public to OCD, writing the 1989 bestseller “The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Washing.”

She “essentially brought that disorder to light in the United States and around the world.” My obit for the Post:

https://t.co/QZB0tVrWxC

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

Wrote about Thaddeus Mosley, the self-taught sculptor who worked nights at a post office, carving by day, before finding international fame at 92.

“Mr. Mosley holds up an example that’s so critical for artists of all generations — to keep going.” https://t.co/PGqqsCR9Sy

[WaPo Tech Guild @wapotechguild]

Tomorrow, the Washington Post Tech Guild enters effects and decisional bargaining over the company’s illegal attempted layoffs of 76 of our colleagues. Our goal is to secure the best possible deal for our members: both those who want to stay and those who choose to leave.

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

For @washingtonpost, I wrote about the death of Paula Doress-Worters, who co-wrote the landmark women's health book "Our Bodies, Ourselves."

She drew on her own experience with postpartum depression to bring the subject out of the shadows: https://t.co/PGioxoJ9kg

[Jim Laurie - focus on Asia @JimLaurie_Asia]

#Vietnam Below- Neil Davis and I photographed the last US helicopter out of Saigon on 30 April 1975 0800. Juan Valdez was on it. He saw from the air NVA troops entering the city. @wapo @harrisondsmith tells his story. He died this week age 88: https://t.co/cTbBTv2mEd

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

Some echoes from an earlier war: The last Marine to leave Vietnam, Juan Valdez, died this month at 88. He was on the last helicopter to take off from the U.S. Embassy in Saigon.

“He was a model leader,” said one Marine who served with him.

https://t.co/HRazN5GMZ6

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

Colman McCarthy, the longtime peace activist and Washington Post columnist, has died at 87.

“He wrote about principles — peace and nonviolence — and he lived by those principles,” said Don Graham, the paper's former publisher. “He made The Post better.”

https://t.co/1gLHSXan76

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

For @washingtonpost, I spoke to former students and colleagues of Tre' Johnson, who died last week at 54. The onetime NFL standout had reinvented himself as a high school history teacher.

“He got me to see more in myself than I knew was there.”

https://t.co/zXXKvLuCjG

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

RIP Frederick Wiseman. He was making movies into his 90s while trying “to do a natural history of the way we live” — capturing life at a housing project, psychiatric institution, city hall, public library and Michelin-starred restaurant.

https://t.co/AKl7YVBA0x

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

Wrote about LaMonte McLemore, gone at 90, who spread a message of joy as a singer in the 5th Dimension and photographer for Jet magazine.

"He was a sure shot. And I knew that if LaMonte was shooting it, it was going to be perfect."

https://t.co/S55cJfjNvl

[Washington Post Guild @PostGuild]

Will Lewis’s exit is long overdue. His legacy will be the attempted destruction of a great American journalism institution. But it's not too late to save The Post. Jeff Bezos must immediately rescind these layoffs or sell the paper to someone willing to invest in its future.

[Ben Mullin @BenMullin]

“I’m glad Will Lewis has been fired. I wish it had happened before he fired all my friends.”
https://t.co/P6Ekeel0lM

[paul schwartzman @paulschwartzman]

⁦@dugganwapo⁩’s last WaPo piece before being laid off is the kind of intricate masterpiece he has been writing since joining the paper in 1987. He is a newspaper original, a reporter at the top of the craft. https://t.co/TcZyYzEOoE

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

Bob Croft, who has died at 91, was a free diving legend. He set three world records, going deeper than most thought possible while participating in Navy studies that reshaped our understanding of the human body’s limits.

My obit for the Post: https://t.co/Io2fDIgWBI

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

Lovely tribute by @ErikWemple.

“I worked there for 60 years, and how many people get to say that about any occupation whatsoever?” The thrill of seeing his work in print “never vanished,” he said. “It never went away. It never got old.”

https://t.co/8HBsqwudLl

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

No one exemplified the Post like Marty. Saying hello to everyone - everyone - when he came to work each night, he made it feel like you were part of one great big journalistic family, even if the aunts and uncles were sometimes bickering in the background. This is devastating.

[paul schwartzman @paulschwartzman]

The great ⁦@martyweilwapost⁩ is leaving The Post after 60 years. Here’s his speech on the occasion of his 50th

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

@jarirah I’m so sorry, Hari. You guys were relentless, in the best way. Gutted for you and the team.

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

"How a major...newspaper will carry on without someone...to summarize the plots of midlist literary novels is beyond me. But I’ll leave that challenge to the august managers who must now carry The Post forward."

Ron is a gem. And, as he notes, "nice." Subscribe to his Substack.

[Ron Charles @RonCharles]

I’ve Been Laid Off. I’m Not Done. https://t.co/9wlYlVMgWK

[Harrison Smith @harrisondsmith]

@bartschaneman I'm so sorry, Bart. Gutted for you and the Seoul team