NPC loses one of its most senior members, Carl Hartman, 95

Carl Hartman, a National Press Club member for 70 years and one of the Associated Press' longest-serving journalists, died Feb. 5 at his Washington home. He was 95 years old.

Hartman joined the NPC in 1942 and became a Golden Owl in 1992. That made him one of the half dozen longest-tenured members of the Club.

After graduating from Princeton University in 1936, Hartman first worked as a Broadway publicist before switching to journalism, reporting for the New York Daily News, a newspaper in Puerto Rico and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency before joining the Associated Press in 1944.

Hartman spent 62 years with the wire service, much of it as a senior correspondent in Europe, where he led bureaus in Madrid, Paris, Budapest, Brussels and Frankfurt. After returning to the AP's Washington bureau in 1978, he covered the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund. He also began writing extensively about Washington's cultural life and museums, ultimately creating a new beat for himself.

Hartman retired in 2006 after 62 years with the AP. He continued to write book reviews, the last of which appeared on the wire on Feb. 6, the day after his death.