Journalist Stanley Jennings, 84

Cartoonist and Writer Designed the National Press Club's Seal

Stanley Noel Jennings, 84, a retired graphic designer, photographer, cartoonist and journalist, died of congestive heart failure Sept. 4 at Montgomery General Hospital in Olney. He was a Silver Spring resident.

Mr. Jennings worked for National Geographic magazine from 1956 to 1971.

After leaving the magazine and until his retirement, he ran a graphic design business, Jennings Publications, first in the National Press Building and later in Silver Spring.

He was born in Forest Glen and spent most of his childhood on Jenkins Hill in Washington, where he delivered papers for the Washington Star, and on his family's farm in Richmond, Ind.

He graduated from Eastern High School and attended George Washington University and Corcoran College of Art and Design.

He worked as a copy aide and advertising illustrator for WOL Radio until joining the Merchant Marine during World War II.

He served as a radio-telephone operator on the oil tanker Esso Hartford and for many years published the Gallup Islander, a magazine for former Merchant Marine radio-telephone operators.

He also edited a history of the Gallup Island Radio Association, published in "We Came From All Over, We Went Everywhere: This Was Gallup Island" (1994).

After the war, he returned to Washington and worked as a writer, photographer, illustrator and cartoonist for the Washington Times-Herald, U.S. News and World Report, the Evening Star and publications of the International Association of Machinists. He also contributed to a number of other publications, including The Washington Post, the Washington Daily News and Parade magazine.

He was a member of the Senate Press Photographers Gallery.

He was active in the National Press Club for decades and served on its board of governors. He drew an updated version of the National Press Club seal that is in use today.

He also designed the plaque awarded to winners of the club's Fourth Estate Award, place mats in the Reliable Source restaurant and lapel pins designating the club's veteran members.

He was a photographer, reporter, editor and designer for the club's weekly newsletter, the Record.

For many years he published Bottoms Up, an independent, irreverent newsletter that mixed nostalgic review of the club's history and traditions with critiques of the club's elected officials and management.

In 2003, the Press Club's members honored him "for his untiring and unsparing efforts to protect and preserve the Club's treasures," including its library, archives, artwork, publications and collection of historic printing-press mats.

In 1999, Mr. Jennings self-published "The Capitol and 'the Kids': My First Seventy-Five Years in Washington," an autobiography and photographic essay about the city.

His marriage to Mildred Locke Jennings ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of 21 years, Jane Smith Stokes Jennings of Silver Spring; two daughters from his first marriage, Shelley Jennings of Boston and Phyllis Allinson of San Diego; a stepson, Lucky Stokes of Alexandria; two grandsons; and a great-grandson.