If you've read the San Francisco Chronicle in the last half-century, you're likely familiar with the name Carl Nolte. The San Francisco native joined the Chronicle as a copy editor on June 13, 1961, and never left, working as a reporter, editor, war correspondent and, most recently, columnist. Along the way, he traced the Gold Rush from the midwest to California, embedded with a U.S. Army platoon in Iraq and sailed through the Panama Canal on a restored World War II ship.