Otis, Harrison Gray

Harrison Gray Otis, (born February 10, 1837, near Marietta, Ohio, U.S.—died July 30, 1917, Los Angeles, California), American newspaper publisher who directed the Los Angeles Times from 1886 until after World War I.

Otis was a descendant of the colonial political activist James Otis. He received little formal education but worked as a printer’s apprentice in his teens and studied briefly at a commercial college in Columbus, Ohio. After moving to Kentucky he became a member of the new Republican Party, and in 1860 he served as a delegate to its national convention, which nominated Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War he served in the eastern theatre, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

He held a variety of jobs in Ohio and Washington, D.C., before migrating in l876 to Santa Barbara, California, where he edited the Santa Barbara Press for several years. Upon moving to Los Angeles, he acquired part interest (1882) and then full control (1886) of the Los Angeles Times, which he edited with an iron hand for the next three decades, becoming one of the most powerful figures in southern California. He made his newspaper a voice of Republican interests, and he opposed labour unions. On October 1, 1910, the offices of his paper were bombed, killing 21 employees. Three union radicals, including two brothers, James B. and John L. McNamara, eventually confessed to the crime. Otis headlined the case. He also championed the declaration of war on Spain in 1898 (as did newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst) and served briefly in the Spanish-American War as a major general.

In 1914 Otis transferred his controlling interest in the newspaper to his daughter and son-in-law, Marian and Harry Chandler, but he continued in practice to direct the day-to-day operations of the Los Angeles Times until his death. His descendants continued to control the newspaper and the Times Mirror Company until June 2000, when the company was acquired by the Tribune Company.