Minnesota Publisher Marty McGowan Dies at 88

By: E&P Staff Lifelong journalist Marty McGowan, died Aug. 13 at age 88, the Politics in Minnesota Web site reported Thursday afternoon.

When the Associated Press offered McGowan a job in Chicago after he graduated from the University of Missouri, his father asked him to stay home to help run the family's Appleton Press. Before joining the family business, McGowan tried to enlist in the U.S. and Canadian armies during World War II but was rejected owing to his asthma.

McGowan bought and published newspapers in Blue Earth, Elmore and Winnebago, Minn., as well as Richmond, Wis. His son told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis after his death that he wanted to "keep his fingers in the printer's ink."

McGowan also served as a state legislator from 1959 to 1966.