John and Sage Cowles at The Cowles Center last fall / Star Tribune photo by Tom Wallace

A memorial service for John Cowles Jr. will be at 2 p.m. next Friday at the Guthrie Theater. Cowles was a key player in convincing Tyrone Guthrie to locate his regional theater in Minneapolis in the early 1960s. He was also former publisher and majority stockholder of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune newspapers, and a philanthropist particularly for arts and social causes.

Cowles died March 17 at his Minneapolis home. He was 82. The memorial on Friday will be on the thrust stage at the Guthrie, 818 S. 2nd St., Mpls.

Read an obituary about Cowles here.