George Goodwin was a man of great integrity. A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and public relations counselor, Goodwin was a teacher and a leader who many have said helped shape Atlanta into the city it is today. "He offered me advice and counsel that was priceless, always pointed and insightful," said former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. "Atlanta is a better city and I was a better mayor because of George's contributions."An Atlanta native, Goodwin received a degree in journalism from Washington and Lee University in 1939, then began his career as a reporter. He was there to write about the Moore's Ford lynching in the summer of 1946 when four blacks were ambushed and gunned down by a mob of whites in rural Walton County. He was there, five months later, on Dec. 7, 1946, when the Winecoff Hotel burned in downtown Atlanta, killing 119, many of whom leaped to their deaths. And he was there, 10 weeks later, when rumors of vote fraud began circulating in the Georgia governor's race. Goodwin, then a 29-year-old City Hall reporter, wrote a series that exposed phony ballots and earned him the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. After walking away from the business in 1952, he transformed public relations in Atlanta, and was a civic leader and behind-the-scenes fixer for almost half a century. George Evans Goodwin of Atlanta died Tuesday of natural causes. He was 97. Read the news obituary