ALLISON III, Henry R. (Hank)Passed away unexpectedly in his Nashville home on September 6, 2008. He was 64 years old. Hank grew up in Southern California, and as a young man, he served honorably with the First Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam. He was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for meritorious war service in 1966. Hank was a graduate of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA with a degree in clinical psychology. It was during his time in Vietnam that Hank began a journalism career that would span several decades, garnering numerous awards. He won the Sigma Delta Chi National Medallion, Columbia University DuPont Award and National Headliner Award for live national radio coverage of the gun battle between the Symbionese Liberation Army (Patricia Hearst Kidnappers) and the Los Angeles Police Department in 1974. He also received a special commendation from then Los Angeles Chief of Police Ed Davis for bravery under gunfire and tear gas during coverage of that news story. Allison was honored with a Golden Mike Award from the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California, and as a KFWB-Westinghouse reporter, he helped cover the Charles Manson Trial, the Bobby Kennedy Assassination and the Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers) Trial. In Nashville, Hank Allison was a reporter and anchor for WTVF Channel 5 television and WKRN, Channel 2 television from 1977 to 1989, and he also authored freelance articles in numerous national magazines and newspapers. Hank believed passionately in the necessity of a free and inquiring press to the effective exercise of democracy. In 1983, Hank graduated from The Nashville School of Law, winning the American Jurisprudence Award. In recent years, he practiced law and operated a title company in the Nashville area. Hank told his children he found the practice of law so satisfying because it allowed him to advocate for those without an economic voice. Hank Allison is survived by his wife, Susan Pritchett Allison of Nashville, and by his mother, Jane Allison and his sister, Judith Allison Reinsma, her husband and children, all of California. Hank was a proud father to his three adult children; daughters, Katie Allison Granju and Betsy Allison Tant, both of Knoxville, TN, and his son, Robert Allison of Bell Buckle, TN. He is survived by 11 grandchildren, Henry Granju, Jane Granju, Elliot Granju, Charlotte Hickman, Eleanor Tant, McLean Tant, Nancy Catherine Tant, Jones Allison, Anna Allison, Helen Allison and Nicholas Allison. Hank will be laid to rest in a private military burial at Middle Tennessee Veterans Cemetery on Thursday morning, September 11. Following the burial, Rev. Carson Salyer will officiate a memorial service at 11 a.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3900 West End Avenue in Nashville with a time of visitation following the service.