Globe-Trotting National Geographic Writer, Editor

Bart McDowell, 85, a writer and editor for National Geographic magazine whose 1991 book, "Inside the Vatican," was among the organization's bestsellers, died of cancer Jan. 17 at his home in Forest Heights.

Mr. McDowell and photographer James L. Stanfield followed Pope John Paul II for a year, gaining access to many previously private scenes in the Vatican.

Mr. McDowell noted that Pope John XXIII was once asked how many people work there, the Chicago Tribune said.

"About half of them," the pontiff replied.

Assignments took Mr. McDowell around the world many times during his 32 years with the magazine, acquainting him with presidents, kings and generals.

He worked on six continents in 67 countries, including 17 republics of the former Soviet Union. He also traveled the world with aviator Charles Lindbergh as well as oil heir Laurance Rockefeller and sailed the Indian Ocean with the U.S. Navy.

"He was one of a kind, a natural diplomat, equally at home sharing a Moscow factory worker's bread crust and interviewing a pope or president," Stanfield said.

Mr. McDowell, who spent six months driving from London to New Delhi in search of Gypsy culture, could also get very close to his subjects. He told the Associated Press in 1999 that President Lyndon B. Johnson enjoyed shaking hands but suffered for it.

"I remember once in Norway, his hands were all bloody," he said. "His knuckles were actually bleeding because he said the Norwegian boys all wanted to shake hands so hard."

Hobart Kelliston McDowell Jr. was born Sept. 10, 1923, in San Antonio and grew up on Mexican ranches and in Texas towns. He served in the Navy in the Pacific during World War II.

He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1947 and did graduate work at the University of Missouri before working for the Rotarian in Evanston, Ill., and for Town Journal, a now-defunct Washington magazine. He joined National Geographic in 1957 and retired in 1989.

His marriage to Martha Shea McDowell ended in divorce. Survivors include four children, Kelly McDowell of El Segundo, Calif., retired Navy Lt. Joseph S. McDowell of San Antonio, Robert M. McDowell of Vienna and Tina S. McDowell of Forest Heights; and four grandchildren.

Mr. McDowell's first book, "I Was a Career Girl's Consort" (1960), was a lighthearted, fictionalized account of his marriage to a working woman. He turned to nonfiction after that, with "The Revolutionary War" (1967), "Gypsies: Wanderers of the World" (1970), "The American Cowboy in Life and Legend" (1972) and "Journey Across Russia: The Soviet Union Today" (1977).

In all, he wrote almost three dozen stories for National Geographic. His five magazine articles about Mexico included a 1980 piece on the Aztecs, for which he learned a bit of their Nahuatl language.

He enjoyed pointing out that, over the course of his career, he managed to slip three hackneyed phrases past his editors: "Once upon a time," "Meanwhile, back at the ranch" and "They lived happily ever after."