Harry Gordon

Henry Alfred Gordon, (9 November 1925 – 21 January 2015) was an Australian journalist, war correspondent, author, and historian of the Olympic Games. During his journalistic career, he served as editor of The Sun News-Pictorial, and editor-in-chief of The Herald and Weekly Times and Queensland Newspapers. From 1992 to 2015, he was the official historian of the Australian Olympic Committee.

Early life Gordon was born 9 November 1925 to Harry Gordon, a dockworker, and his wife, Marjorie. As a child, he was taught to tap dance by his mother and to box by his father. In 1950, at the age of 24, he was sent abroad to cover the Korean War from the front-line. In addition to his own newspaper, his war reports were published in the Adelaide Advertiser, The West Australian and The Courier-Mail. Shocked by the edits made to his reports by the United States' censorship teams, he developed a system of flying to Japan when he had a particularly good story, and dictating his report to a friend who would take a copy to the AAP-Reuters office in Tokyo for direct transmission to Australia; this avoided the reports being censored.

In 1992, he was appointed the official historian of the Australian Olympic Committee. He wrote a history of Australia's participation in the Olympics. It was titled Australia and the Olympic Games and it was published in 1994. In 2003, he authored The Time of Our Lives: Inside the Sydney Olympics : Australia and the Olympic Games 1994–2002 and in 2014 From Athens With Pride: The Official History of the Australian Olympic Movement, 1894 to 2014.

Honours 1980 – appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) 'for service to Journalism in Queensland'. 1993 – appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM). 2000 – awarded Australian Sports Medal 2001 – awarded the Olympic Order, the highest honour awarded by the International Olympic Committee. 2003 – Melbourne Press Club Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award.