After working briefly as a reporter for the Knoxville News-Sentinel, Julian Harriss joined the staff of the university in 1937 and subsequently earned the bachelor’s (1939) and master’s (1947) degrees from the university. He established a news bureau that regularly fed UT news to Tennessee’s newspapers and radio stations. He also established a speakers’ bureau and developed a centralized mailing list for use by all departments. In 1946 he became public relations director for the university, a position he held for 30 years.
Harriss was instrumental in establishing the Tennessee Press Association, and he taught numerous journalism courses at the university. In 1942 Harriss and Stanley Phillips Johnson wrote The Complete Reporter, and Harriss consulted on five editions of the book, which is still in general use as a textbook in journalism schools. A member of Kappa Tau Alpha Journalism Honorary Society, Harriss has been inducted into the Tennessee Newspaper Hall of Fame.