Reader Responses to Tony Horwitz ’80

Thank you for running an extended obituary on Tony Horwitz ’80 (Farewell, Sept/Oct). Tony’s skill at “how to listen and how to ask questions” was indeed remarkable. He learned some of that in his first job. Peter Goldberger ’80 and I recruited Tony to come to Mississippi to be a union organizer. We were working with, and inspired by, a small team of former United Farm Workers staff. Tony was gifted at befriending and learning the stories of pulpwood cutters and their families. Thousands harvested timber to feed a network of paper mills. Their work was dangerous, physically demanding, and very low paid. Tony eventually chose to be a journalist instead of an organizer. But it’s no coincidence that 15 years later he won a Pulitzer Prize for “stories about working conditions in low-wage America.” Tony had returned to Mississippi, taken jobs inside chicken processing plants, and told the stories of the refugees, immigrants, and wives of woodcutters who still worked inside.