Born in Kentucky, Walter Harrison, best known simply as “Skipper,” was already a reporter for Iowa’s Sioux City Daily newspaper in high school and went on to graduate from Iowa State College before working at the Des Moines Register, San Francisco Bulletin and Call, Winnipeg Tribune, and Minneapolis Tribune. Harrison became managing editor of The Daily Oklahoman and the Oklahoma City Times (1916-1946) and was president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors for two terms before becoming a news commentator for KOMA Radio (1946) and editing the weekly magazine Free Speech. He became part owner and manager of KTOW Radio in Oklahoma City in 1948 and served on the city council (1949-1957). Harrison was chairman of the board of Britton Printing Co., Inc. and owner of the North Star, an Oklahoma City weekly until his death. Harrison also served as chairman of the Oklahoma Associated Press Editorial Association and was on the editorial affairs committee of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association.