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JE A He's also polishing his eating habits. Atypical   sionally "drops out" with his wife, Ann Roberts
JG- I breakfast; oatmeal or a bran muffin — "the —adaughterottheIate Nelson RockefeIIer("I
t health movement has provided a lot of bad l Name: T (it doesn't stand for anything) broke out all over in spots when I realized I'd
Witt tastes but that's one of the really good ones." George Harris. fallen for her"). She's in graduate school atthe
ttm Lunch is usually Ientil soup. I Born; Oct. 4, I924, in Simpson County Ky. Ut’tlvet'SIh/ of Virglhle, Charlottesville.
;O{   All this is a far cry from his days as a Time His parents were tobacco farmers. They meet most weekends in New York,
  magazine reporter when he smoked four pacla I Background: At I6, he began working as a Charlottesville orany one of a number of cities
tes of unfiltered cigarettes a day and munched on reporter for the Clarksville (Tenn.) Leaf- Where their WOfI< takes Them.
iunkfood. He was born again into good health Chronicle. "My first crusade was to putVD "Ours is nota commuter marriage— it's more
{hg habits in the '70s while he was editor of on thefrontpage. Ithad neverbeen covered of an orbit," he says.
his Psychology Today. as a serious public problem before," he Some ofthe besttimes are with theirkids, he
me He took over the dying magazine in I969, says. In World War II, he received a Bronze says. Harris hasfourgrown children with his first
and quicklyturned itinto a popular publication. Starfor "Ieadership underfire. . .that’sthe wife, who died of cancer. Ann has fourfrom a
{hh But in the mid-’70s, after the magazine was only qualification for editing I have." He previous marriage.
md sold and tension between Harris and his new attended UKfor2 years before transferring Harris says he doesn't separate work from
tgp bosses mounted, the editorhitthe pavement- to Yale. play. "I have a lot of trouble drawing the line
CG- iogging. I Early career; After graduation from Yale in between fun and work, because most of my fun
"I did all the idiotthings you could do. I didn't I949, with a degree in social psychology turns outto be useful and most of my work turns
S is warm up. I iust put my shoes on and hit the hewas hired by Time magazine. "Theidea out to be fun."
road . . . It helped me lose 40 pounds." thatpeoplewere going to paymetospend _
3 Gt By the time the new owners fired Harris, he the rest of my life asking questions was By Ngncf t-tettmtchl G rgpgrfgr {O, U5A TOd¤y_ gtory
Up had his own idea fora magazine thatfocused amazing to me." After I2 years at Time, he reprinted with permission. © IQ87 USA Today.
md on the body as well as the mind. was hired by Look.
Aboutthe same time, Owen Lipstein, an en- ¤ Andthen. . .:In l969, hetookoverPsychol- E
ttm terprising young MBA, realized public interest ogy Today when it had a circulation of L
HS was moving belowthe shoulders. In I98l, Lip- 200,000. Fouryearslateritwas I,I50,000.
wt stein and Harris became co—founders of He headedtheteam thatcreated American
reg American Health. Health, which now has a circulation of _
The heartof Harris' abilities is his charm, says 850,000.
hg, Lipstein, AH publisher. "He'sthe kind ofguy that ¤ Awards: Two American Society of Maga- `
1ter women want to confess their sins to and guys zine Editors' awards forgeneral excellence
- Up want to take out and drink with." —Psychology Todayin l973 and American _
Editorloel Gurin describes Harris asawork- Health in l985. -
wh aholic. "He has a very fast-paced, energetic i
he- style and you sometimes have to slow him j
tycty down a little and tell him he started a story in
the middle"
tthg But, he adds, "George is not dull."
the Harris says he works ata "high energy level,
;thg   but not a high tension level. I don't go home g
(gr- , beat."
aq;- He usually arrives at his penthouse apart- E
I mentoverlooking Central Park between 8 and
atof 9 p.m. carrying an L.L. Bean backpack
s in crammed with homework- stories that need ‘
| Up to be edited, letters to write, magazines to read. e
teat Between running the magazine and ietting
around to attend conferences, Harris flies to E
-tO Boston to tape commentaries for his pet Z
y to American Health proiect; Bodywatch, a half-
hour PBS series.
To keep his life in perspective, Harris occa-
UK I I ` r