Harrison Smith

Washington, D.C.

Obituary writer

Education: University of Chicago, AB in English and philosophy

Harrison Smith is a reporter on The Washington Post's obituaries desk, where he has worked since 2015. He covers people who have made a significant impact on their field, city or country — a group of the recently deceased that includes big-game hunters, single-handed sailors, fallen dictators, Olympic champions and the creator of the Hawaiian pizza. He previously worked for KidsPost and contributed to Washingtonian and Chicago magazines, among other publications. He co-founded the South Side Weekly newspaper in Chicago before moving to the District in 2015.
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Latest from Harrison Smith

Jackie Winsor, who sculpted with wood, rope and concrete, dies at 82

Rising to prominence in the wake of 1960s minimalism, she became the first female sculptor to have a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art.

September 11, 2024
Ms. Winsor's sculpture “Bound Square,” from 1972, was featured in her 1979 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The show traveled to museums in Toronto and Fort Worth.

Frankie Beverly, exuberant singer-songwriter for Maze, dies at 77

The R&B group was hailed by Ebony magazine as “Black America’s favorite band,” and was known for its joyous 1981 anthem “Before I Let Go.”

September 11, 2024
Mr. Beverly in 2015.

Dan Morgenstern, who helped safeguard jazz history, dies at 94

He surveyed the music’s past and present, directing a vast jazz archive at Rutgers University at Newark and writing liner notes that won eight Grammy Awards.

September 10, 2024
Jazz scholar Dan Morgenstern in 2007. He was the longtime director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University at Newark.

Noel E. Parmentel Jr., acerbic essayist and provocateur, dies at 98

He freelanced for Esquire and National Review, encouraged Norman Mailer to run for mayor of New York and mentored a young Joan Didion.

September 5, 2024
Mr. Parmentel on Long Island Sound in 2012.

Steve Silberman, journalist who explored autism’s history, dies at 66

He wrote about the developmental condition in “NeuroTribes,” a 2015 bestseller that promoted understanding and acceptance of people who think differently.

September 4, 2024
Journalist and author Steve Silberman signing his 2015 book “NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity” at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

Michel Guérard, a pioneer of low-calorie, full-flavor food, dies at 91

While cooking at his family-run spa in southwestern France, he helped make lighter, brighter dishes a staple of fine dining.

August 29, 2024
Mr. Guérard in 2008.

Leonard Riggio, who built Barnes & Noble into a juggernaut, dies at 83

He grew the company into the country’s largest bookselling chain, pioneering the big-box bookstore in the 1990s before doing battle with Amazon.

August 28, 2024
Longtime Barnes & Noble chairman Leonard Riggio in 2005.

Ofra Bikel, whose films freed the wrongly convicted, dies at 94

Documentaries she produced for PBS’s “Frontline” series were credited with helping free 13 people, including seven in a child sex abuse case in North Carolina.

August 27, 2024
Documentary filmmaker Ofra Bikel in an undated family photo.

Betty Cooke, Baltimore jeweler who made wearable art, dies at 100

Her minimalist necklaces, brooches, rings and earrings were acquired by museums and sold at her Baltimore design shop.

August 21, 2024
Artist and jewelry designer Betty Cooke in 2021 outside the Store Ltd., the Baltimore design shop she ran for nearly six decades.

Bill Pascrell Jr., long-serving House member from N.J., dies at 87

The 14-term congressman served on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, where he fought for access to Donald Trump’s tax returns.

August 21, 2024
Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.) in 2011.