Leap Of Fate Cowles-Sulzberger Marriage Will Add A Blissful Knot To Newspaper Families’ Ties

March is not Spokane’s prettiest month. Any snow the city has experienced turns a gritty color. It can rain in March. Or hail. Or even snow some more.

But Spokane’s moody weather won’t bother Arthur “Punch” Sulzberger. On March 9, in Spokane, the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of The New York Times Co. will marry Allison Cowles, longtime Spokane community leader.

“When you get married, every day is springtime,” Sulzberger said.

“Fate brought us together,” added Sulzberger, who just turned 70. “We’ve known one another so long. We’re on separate sides of the country. It’s just fate that we came together.”

Allison Cowles, 61, is the widow of William H. Cowles 3rd, who was president and publisher of The Spokesman-Review and Spokane Chronicle when he died of a heart attack in 1992. Sulzberger’s wife, Carol, died last summer after a battle with cancer.

Sulzberger said he’d read about similar instances - “the widow of one friend marries the widower of the other” - but he never expected it in his own life.

“It’s like a miracle,” added Cowles.

The Sulzberger and the Cowles families have known each other since the beginning of the century. In the 1970s, Bill Cowles and Punch Sulzberger served as Associated Press board members. The Spokane publisher followed the New York Times publisher as chairman of the American Newspaper Publishers Association in the late ‘80s.

Combined, Allison Cowles and Punch Sulzberger have six children and 11 grandchildren. The children are unanimously delighted that their parents got together.

“They are so sweet together. It’s just wonderful to see,” said Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times. He joked that he looks forward to calling Stacey Cowles, publisher of The Spokesman-Review, “stepbrother.”

The engagement announcement has attracted much media attention. This makes both Cowles and Sulzberger a bit uncomfortable, because they are private people. However, they agreed to an interview at The Spokesman-Review on Monday afternoon.

The romance “took some of our friends by surprise, Sulzberger said. “They were tickled pink, but floored.”

Cowles and Sulzberger seemed exuberant as they described their plans for the future. They laughed at each other’s comments and realized those around them have picked up on their happiness.

“When your kids start to giggle about you, you start to worry,” Cowles said.

Elaine Foerster, a longtime friend and business associate of the Cowles family, said: “The one thing I am certain of - 120 percent certain of - is that he is getting a most incredible wife.”

Cowles and Sulzberger have much in common. The family newspaper businesses. Shared experiences. A commitment to their families, to education and the arts. A love of travel and the belief that they should give back to the communities in which they live.

They will live in both Spokane and New York. They will also visit London, where he keeps a flat. Cowles will keep her name and her many commitments to Spokane. She is a director at Seafirst Bank, vice chair of Mount Spokane 2000, chair of the advisory board for the branch campus of Washington State University and co-chair of that institution’s Capital Campaign. She also serves on the Sports, Entertainment, Arts & Convention Advisory Board (SECAB).

The couple’s apartment in New York City will allow Cowles closer proximity to her work outside Spokane. She is a trustee at Wellesley College, her alma mater, and a member of The Smithsonian Institution National Board.

Sulzberger likes Spokane. “I find the people to be so nice. And it looks so spotless compared to New York.”

But don’t ask him to serve on your board. He’s a busy man at the helm of a major media corporation.

The New York Times Co. owns The New York Times, The Boston Globe, 21 smaller newspapers, 10 magazines, six network-affiliated television stations, two New York City radio stations and several other media ventures. The company’s 1995 revenues totaled $2.4 billion.

Sulzberger is trustee emeritus of Columbia University, from which he graduated in 1951. Plus, he is chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The two hope to do some traveling together and both remember fondly an Associated Press trip to China in 1977. The 24 newspaper executives and spouses toured the country just as it was opening to the outside world.

“It was a year after Chairman Mao’s death and many people had never seen outsiders,” Cowles said. “Traveling was difficult and we all shared a great adventure. We became a team.”

The upcoming marriage has generated some media speculation. Will The New York Times Co. now buy Cowles Publishing Co.?

Sulzberger looked around the conference room and joked: “Is it for sale?”

Cowles said with a laugh, “There are easier ways of merging companies than getting married. That’s such a medieval concept.”

Daughter Betsy Cowles, chair of KHQ Inc. and president of companies that own River Park Square, said of such speculation: “When I hear about it, it makes me chuckle. It’s so far from reality.”

She added: “To see Mom happy is such a joy. And Punch seems so happy, too. It’s just absolutely heartwarming.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo