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Des Moines play today features Ding Darling cartoonist, conservationist
Tom Milligan as Ding Darling.
Ding Darling is best known as a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist at the Des Moines Register, but he was also a nationally influential conservationist.
On this Earth Day, an actor who portrays Darling will perform a free, one-act play in downtown Des Moines. Kim Coulter, communications director at Central Presbyterian Church, says Darling’s cartoons became legendary over the decades.
“Most of the time, it was political in his theme, however, he also dove into conservation,” Coulter says. “A lot of his cartoons verged on conservationism and trying to get water and nature to survive longer.” Actor Tom Milligan has appeared as Darling in multiple venues, including at the Iowa State Fair.