08/23/2023
We were saddened by the recent passing of Tim Harrison. His dedication to lighthouse education and preservation over more than 30 years has made a huge contribution to saving America's lighthouses, including our own Harbor of Refuge Light. Thank you, Tim, your light will shine on!
We are deeply saddened to report that on August 19, 2023, the lighthouse community of the world lost one of its greatest lights. Our beloved editor-in-chief, Timothy E. Harrison passed away at the age of 75 due to complications of pneumonia in Bangor, Maine. For over 31 years, Tim has been the driving force in preserving our nation’s lighthouse history through each and every one of the almost 300 issues of the internationally published Lighthouse Digest magazine that he and his wife and business partner, Kathleen Finnegan-Harrison, produced. His legacy and accomplishments in researching, writing about, and saving lighthouse history are legion, but his heart was always with the magazine.
Tim’s lighthouse passion started in 1989 through a trip to Maine that he and Kathy took while they were visiting lighthouses. This led to them researching the lighthouses of New England and writing a book which resulted in the creation of Lighthouse Digest magazine. Serving as editor and publisher of the Lighthouse Digest drove his creative ambition. To promote lighthouse preservation and lighthouse history in any and every conceivable way, Tim wrote and co-authored 14 more books, started businesses, formed non-profits, lobbied for legislation, wrote grants, established museums, organized preservation groups, sponsored fundraisers, worked on restoration projects, gained stewardship of U.S. Lighthouse Service buildings, gave hundreds of presentations, hosted lighthouse keeper grave marker ceremonies, gathered a massive historical archive, developed an online history database, created the Lighthouse Digest Doomsday List of Endangered Lighthouses, sponsored and appeared in video and television productions, and served on museum boards.
At the time of his death, he was the president of the board of the West Quoddy Head Light Keepers Association in Lubec, Maine and on the board of the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland, Maine. He had just finished creating museum exhibits focusing on West Quoddy Lighthouse history and its lighthouse keepers in the Ron Pesha Lighthouse History Museum at the West Quoddy Lighthouse Visitors Center. In recent years, he also created the nonprofit Lighthouse History Research Institute to provide an archive for the extensive volume of lighthouse and keeper research documents, and historic photographs he had assembled over the last three decades. Tim was even preparing material for writing another book entitled Lighthouse Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem!
To say that he will be missed by all of us in the lighthouse community and especially at Lighthouse Digest is a monumental understatement. We are in the midst of the final stages of production of the September/October issue of the magazine, which will understandably be late in mailing. We ask for your patience in this regard and also for your prayers and thoughts of comfort for Kathy and the rest of the Lighthouse Digest family. As Tim often said, “We would not be here without all of you who have supported us so enthusiastically for so many years.” We all sincerely thank you for your ongoing help and hope you will find comfort as we do in the knowledge that Tim is finally in a place where he will find out all the answers to those pesky lighthouse “history mystery” questions he has posed over the years!
A memorial service will be held in Cutler, Maine on Saturday, September 2, 2023 at the Cutler United Methodist Church at 10:30am with visitation 1 hour before. Another memorial service will be held later in his home state of Michigan, date to be determined. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Lighthouse History Research Institute, P.O. Box 250, East Machias, ME 04630. www.LighthouseHistoryResearch.org
We love and miss you, Tim. Your light shines forever!
