The son of banker, publisher, and politician
Gardner Cowles Sr., John was a graduate of
Phillips Exeter Academy and
Harvard University. In 1922, Cowles launched the
Register and Tribune Syndicate. In 1935, his family acquired the
Minneapolis Star; John moved to Minneapolis to manage the paper. Under his leadership, it had the city's highest circulation, pressuring Minneapolis's other newspapers. With his brother
Gardner "Mike" Cowles Jr., he was a co-founder of
Look magazine, launched in 1937. To help counteract the agitation against the
Vietnam War in the mid-1960s, Cowles served on a committee that included such notables as:
Arthur H. Dean,
Dean Acheson,
Eugene R. Black,
James B. Conant,
Thomas S. Gates,
Roswell Gilpatric,
David Rockefeller, and
John J. McCloy. His service on boards included the boards of trustees of the
Ford Foundation and the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the boards of directors of the First National Bank of Minneapolis and the
Equitable Life Insurance Company of Iowa. == Family ==