Donald G. Gardner was born in 1889, in Monticello, Indiana and died in 1947. He was charismatic, civic minded, open minded, an amateur photographer specializing in 16 mm film and an art collector. Don Gardner founded Gardner Publications (now Gardner Business Media) in 1928 after working with newspapers in Colorado and Wyoming and was the Southwestern Manager of Iron Age magazine. Gardner Publications first magazine was Modern Machine Shop, the first digest-sized magazine in metalworking. Modern Machine Shop has grown into the leading metalworking magazine in the world.

As an art collector, Gardner primarily acquired paintings by Cincinnati artists and particularly liked Impressionist works and art done of American Indians. Mr. Gardner liked martinis, fishing, hunting, collecting guns and vacationing in the Ely area. He had hay fever, smoked, and hunted in Alaska, Ely and Africa. At one time he donated Russian Brown bears to the Cincinnati Zoo.