Gardner Cowles Jr.


Gardner "Mike" Cowles Jr. was an American newspaper and magazine publisher. He was co-owner of the Cowles Media Company, whose assets included the Minneapolis Star, the Minneapolis Tribune, the Des Moines Register, Look magazine, and a half-interest in Harper's Magazine.

Biography

Cowles was a descendant of Hannah Bushoup of Hartford, Connecticut, and John Cowles of Gloucestershire, England. His father Gardner Cowles Sr. was a banker, publisher, and politician who purchased The Des Moines Register and the Des Moines Tribune.
Cowles Jr. was born in Algona, Iowa. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard University.
He became co-owner with his brother John of the Cowles Media Company, and in 1937 became co-founder, co-publisher, and editor of Look magazine. He also served as executive editor of The Des Moines Register and The Des Moines Tribune.
In 1939, Mike and John, along with entrepreneur Everett M. "Busy" Arnold, became owners of the newly formed Comic Magazines, Inc., the corporate entity that would publish the Quality Comics comic book line..
In the 1940 Republican Party presidential primaries, Cowles and his brother supported Wendell Willkie in their newspapers and magazines. Cowles later accompanied Wilkie on a world tour, and helped him write the bestseller One World.
In 1942 Cowles had been appointed to wartime duty as assistant director of the Office of War Information. His responsibilities in the OWI were to direct a domestic news bureau, coordinating information from non-military government agencies. Cowles served in the OWI under the leadership of Elmer Davis for about a year and then returned to Des Moines.
In the fall of 1942 Cowles and Barnes accompanied special representative of President Roosevelt Wendell Willkie in his international tour. They visited Stalin in Moscow on 23 September 1942
Returned to USA Cowles had 2-hours speech for journalists in November 1942 and told how Stalin allegedly expressed anti-British sentiment. Stalin denied the accusation.
For a time, Cowles owned the infamous "petrified man" the Cardiff Giant, which he bought to adorn his basement rumpus room as a coffee table and conversation piece. During 1947, he sold it to the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, New York, where it is still displayed.
Cowles was a donor to the Gardner Cowles Foundation, an executive of the Farfield Foundation, and sponsor of the journal History.
In the 1950s, Cowles was involved with the propaganda campaign Crusade for Freedom. He was a delegate to the 1954 Bilderberg Conference, the first meeting of the conference.

Personal life and death

Cowles was married to writer, editor, and artist Fleur Cowles from 1946 to 1955, ending in divorce. His daughter Lois Cowles Harrison was a civic leader, women's rights activist, and philanthropist.
Cowles Jr. died at age 82 on July 8, 1985, from cardiac arrest, in Southampton, New York.