Harmon Perry, 80, former Jet Atlanta Bureau Editor, dies

Jet, Dec 22, 2003

Services were held recently in Atlanta for Harmon Perry, award winning photojournalist and former Atlanta Bureau editor for JET Magazine. Perry, 80, succumbed to heart failure at Roswell Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in the city.

Perry served as JET's Atlanta Bureau editor from 1973 to 1981; he directed its editorial coverage in Atlanta and throughout the South.

An alumnus of Morris Brown College, Perry began his career as a photojournalist in 1954 with the Atlanta Daily World newspaper. He served until 1968 when he joined the Atlanta Journal as its first Black reporter. Five years later he resigned his post with the paper to join JET.

In addition to covering the South for JET, Perry also was a freelance photographer for EBONY Magazine.

The talented photojournalist was a founder of the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists (AABJ) and was named photographer of the year by Atlanta Women in the Media in 1978. He won the AABJ first-place award for news photography in 1983.

Perry's survivors include daughters Phyllis Alesia Perry and Phillippa Maffett, both of Atlanta; two grandsons and a great-grandson.