Phil Hamby passed away before Christmas. Hamby was a man of many talents. He was a successful home builder in the early 1980’s. Later in life, he started a weekly newspaper called The Peoples Press and in the mid 1990’s purchased the Knoxville Journal. He was the first media to expose the disparity of the salaries of school employees. The Knoxville Journal printed every school employee salaries for the publics benefit.

Hamby warned of a day without multiple independent news sources. Lo and behold, he was right when Sandra Clark sold the Shopper and became a line item in the E.W. Scripps ledger. Along with Metro Pulse and nearly every other news publication.

In his divorce, his ex wife wound up with control of the Knoxville Journal and today it seems it is becoming a victim of the original version of itself.

Today, the Farragut Press is the only weekly community newspaper without an agenda or such another line item in the E. W. Scripps ledger.

So, here’s to Phil Hamby, a man before his time. The pioneer of pioneers. Knoxville will forever be better because of Phil.