Longtime Iowan Editor Carl Gartner Dies

(AP) Carl Gartner, a longtime editor at The Des Moines Register and The Des Moines Tribune, died Wednesday at age 102.

Gartner is the father of Michael Gartner, a former Register editor, president of NBC News and owner of the Iowa Cubs baseball team.

Carl Gartner spent a half-century working at newspapers in Des Moines and Waterloo before retiring in 1972. His career included stints at the Tribune, where he was a copy editor, city desk editor and reporter, and with the Register, where he edited a Sunday picture section and became the first editor of Picture Magazine, a Sunday supplement started in 1950. He edited the magazine for 22 years.

Picture included glamour shots of Hollywood actresses, aerial photographs of Iowa towns, feature articles, and a once-a-year double-page spread in color on the birds of the state.

While Gartner's writing rarely appeared under a byline, his occasional feature stories for the Tribune were often clipped and saved by other staffers who admired his work. He also wrote some 50 poems about animals to accompany photos in Picture.

Gartner's first newspaper job was at the now-defunct Waterloo Morning Call. He joined The Des Moines Tribune in 1931, and was later one of a handful of editors to start Look magazine. He turned down an offer to stay with the magazine when its staff moved to New York City.

In 1951, Gartner was one of 50 journalists selected for a part in a movie titled ""Teacher's Pet,"" starring Doris Day and Clark Gable. He played a reporter and had one scene.