Gardner Cowles, Sr., practiced his favorite slogan of "things don't just happen. Somebody makes 'em happen" when he not only cultivated a Midwestern tradition of quality journalism but also established one of America's more distinctive publishing and communication empires. Cowles (pronounced "Coles") balked at the label "empire builder," but his corporate holdings included the Des Moines (Iowa) Register and Leader, the Des Moines Evening Tribune, the Minneapolis Star-Journal, the Minneapolis Times and Tribune, Look magazine, the Register and Tribune Syndicate, and several radio and television stations.

While Cowles's family roots were not journalistic ones, it was from his parents, Maria Elizabeth LaMonte Cowles and the Reverend William Fletcher Cowles, that Gardner Cowles apparently derived his business acumen and a later emphasis on newspaper circulation as both a source of profit and a maximum opportunity to educate and inform readers.

Gardner Cowles was born on 28 February 1861 in Oskaloosa, Iowa...