In a Cincinnati Enquirer newsroom filled with talent and eccentrics in the 1970s, illustrator Jerry Dowling was both.
Dowling, who died at age 85 Saturday, was a prolific cartoonist who poked fun at the Big Red Machine, Bengals and Bearcats for the sports pages, as well as numerous celebrities for the Sunday entertainment section in the last half of the 20th century.
A Dowling cartoon was unmistakable. And merciless. Elvis Presley was so upset by Dowling’s depiction of him as fat and old that Presley brought it on stage at Riverfront Coliseum in 1977 and showed it to the audience.
“Jerry wore that like an Olympic gold medal,” says Jim Borgman, his former Enquirer colleague. There was nothing subtle about a Dowling cartoon. “It was a wonder to behold. His lines were bold, his opinions bolder.”
A Canadian, Dowling was designing and illustrating bottles for Hiram Walker’s whiskey brands in Windsor, Ontario, before being hired as an Enquirer sports cartoonist in the late 1960s. (Sports cartoonists were common in newspapers through most of the 1900s.)
Dowling arrived as the Bengals were playing their first seasons, and before the Reds hired manager Sparky Anderson and both teams moved into Riverfront Stadium in 1970. Tucked into the corner of every sports cartoon was his trademark character, Dirty Rat, with a smart aleck remark.
“While he didn’t coin the phrase ‘Big Red Machine,’ Jerry’s pen chronicled the rise and dominance of the Big Red Machine in the 1970s,” says cartoonist Kevin Necessary, who interned at the Enquirer in 2000 after Dowling had left the paper.
Although Necessary was nearly half Dowling’s age, “I was always grateful for the encouragement and advice he provided over the years.”
Dowling was known for his caricatures. Many of his coworkers over the years — myself included — have a drawing by him. Some were drawn on napkins at the Cricket, the bar in the Cincinnatian Hotel Downtown next to the old Enquirer office at 617 Vine St., where newsroom staffers gathered after their shifts.
“His eye was sharp. His pen was sharper. His caricatures were prized. Athletes, entertainers, politicians, men and women at the top of their game met their match at the hand of Jerry Dowling — and usually begged to have his originals,” says Luke Feck, Enquirer editor from 1975 to 1980.
“Jerry Dowling was one of a kind,” Feck says. “He could be gruff. He could be lovable. But he was always Jerry — a talented eccentric who made the paper better every day his art was printed.”
Dowling took sports seriously. For years he watched most Reds home games from the press box, and was a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America. He also was an avid hockey fan.
Although he drew all kinds of popular entertainers, he had a special interest in country musicians. Not many knew that outside the office he played guitar and pedal steel guitar, and met many country musicians through Bobby Mackey, says Charles Fry, the Enquirer’s former deputy photo editor.
In recent years, Dowling published books of his illustrations about Pete Rose, the Big Red Machine, Bengals, Cincinnati hockey, Bearcats and one called Drawing Grand Ole Country The Way It Was, with a foreword by Whispering Bill Anderson.
Joy Kraft, a former Enquirer features section page designer, said that “under that cutting wit, dour sidelong glance was a kind heart he showed to only a few. I was fortunate . . . most of the time,” she wrote on Facebook.
At the Enquirer, he also helped organize the weekly news division golf game, called the Enquirer Duffers League. He even calculated players’ handicaps. In the late 1970s, Dowling also penned a daily Enquirer cartoon strip about a young photographer named F. Stop Fitzgerald.
For the past 10 years, he organized the Enquirer reunion lunches in April and October with retired news editor Dick Benson. Dowling also drew caricatures for the annual Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists' Hall of Fame induction.
Dowling also seldom missed local illustrators’ weekly lunches, “even through numerous health issues of late,” says illustrator John Maggard.
“Jerry was prolific, super talented and super opinionated. He regularly brought in some of the many pieces he was working on, and was always quick to compliment others’ work, established artists and beginners alike,” Maggard says.
As he confronted various health issues, his wife Geraldine would drive him to and attend lunches, book signings and other events. They were to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary in May.
Necessary called Dowling “a longtime cornerstone of the Cincinnati illustration community.”
“He was a proud member of the National Cartoonists Society and often traveled with his wife Geraldine to participate in chapter gatherings. He was well loved by many for his unapologetic curmudgeonliness,” Borgman says.
Among his legacies is the mural Dowling drew on the wall at Arthur’s restaurant, 3515 Edwards Road, Hyde Park.
“Jerry’s ink-stained fingerprints are all around town,” Necessary says. “He was one of a kind, and will be missed.”
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