View source for Ewing Kauffman

{{Short description|American pharmaceutical entrepreneur (1916–1993)}}
{{more footnotes|date=January 2012}}
{{use American English|date=October 2013}}
{{use mdy dates|date=October 2013}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Ewing Kauffman
| image         = Ewing Kauffman 1968.jpg
| alt           = 
| caption       = 
| birth_name    = Ewing Marion Kauffman
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1916|9|21}}<ref name="nyt obit"/>
| birth_place   = near [[Garden City, Missouri]], U.S.<ref name="nyt obit"/>
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1993|8|1|1916|9|21}}<ref name="nyt obit"/>
| death_place   = [[Mission Hills, Kansas]], U.S.<ref name="nyt obit"/>
| resting_place = 
| resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline}} -->
| monuments     = 
| alma_mater    = {{ubl|{{•}}[[Westport High School (Missouri)|Westport High School]]<ref name="nyt obit"/>|{{•}}[[Metropolitan Community College (Missouri)|Longview Community College]]<ref name="nyt obit"/>}}
| occupation    = American [[pharmaceutical]] entrepreneur, [[philanthropist]], and [[Major League Baseball]] team owner
| spouse        = 
| children      = 
| parents       = 
| relatives     = 
}}
'''Ewing Marion Kauffman''' (September 21, 1916{{spaced ndash}} August 1, 1993) was an American [[pharmaceutical]] entrepreneur, [[philanthropist]], and [[Major League Baseball]] owner.<ref name=sevone>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=d5BfAAAAIBAJ&pg=5955%2C4471054 |work=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho |agency=Associated Press |title=Royals owner Kauffmann stimulated by challenges |date=August 22, 1971 |page=16}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Ewing Kauffman was born on September 21, 1916, on a farm near [[Garden City, Missouri]]. He was the son of John S. Kauffman and  Effie May Winders, who were [[German-Americans]].<ref name="nyt obit"/> When Kauffman was a child, his father was in a farming accident which left him blind in his right eye.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.kauffman.org/emk/ewing#thefamilyfarm|title=Ewing {{!}}1916–1945{{!}}|website=Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation|access-date=July 15, 2019}}</ref> Following the accident, his father relocated the family to Kansas City, where he worked as a life insurance salesman.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://iw.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/0EAF3F70DF07040B|title=Ewing M. Kauffman 1916–1993 Visionary 'Mr. K" is dead; Business success with Marion led to Royals baseball team and philanthropy.|last1=Skodack|first1=Debra|first2=Charles R. T. |last2=Crumpley|date=August 2, 1993 | newspaper =The Kansas City Star|access-date=July 15, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref>

As a child, Kauffman loved reading. When he was 11, he had to leave school for a year, due to a heart valve that would not close completely.<ref name=":1" /> During this year, Kauffman taught himself how to [[speed read]]. It was not uncommon for him to read one to two books a day.<ref name="Ewing">{{Cite web|url=https://www.kauffman.org/emk/ewing|title=Ewing|website=www.kauffman.org|access-date=2019-07-15}}</ref> In later years, Kauffman believes his success in the pharmaceutical business stemmed from his ability to read quickly. In 1928, when Kauffman was 12, his parents divorced. He lived with his mother, and his father remained active in his life. On days spent with his father, it was not uncommon for the two  to compete in arithmetic competitions, the most common game being adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing the numbers on license plates.<ref name="Ewing"/>

Kauffman was an active youth who participated in various sports, and performed very well in school. He was also an [[Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America)|Eagle Scout]] and later, in adulthood, was  awarded the [[Distinguished Eagle Scout Award]].<ref name="desalistg">{{cite web|url=http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/02-529.pdf|title=Distinguished Eagle Scouts|publisher=Scouting.org|format=[[PDF]] format|access-date=November 4, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312002744/http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/02-529.pdf|archive-date=March 12, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Kauffman graduated from Kansas City's [[Westport High School (Missouri)|Westport High School]] in 1934 and later attended [[Metropolitan Community College (Missouri)|Kansas City Junior College]],<ref name="nyt obit" /> He received his associate degree in Business Management.

==Career==

=== Military ===
In 1942, Kauffman joined the military and served in the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] as a signalman.<ref name=":0" /> He served in both Europe and the Philippines;<ref name=":1" /> after his discharge in 1945, he returned to Kansas City.

=== Lincoln Laboratories ===
In 1947, Kauffman became a commissioned salesman for Lincoln Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company based in [[Decatur, Illinois]].<ref name="Marion">{{Cite web|url=https://www.kauffman.org/emk/marion|title=Marion|website=www.kauffman.org|access-date=2019-07-15}}</ref> Kauffman earned a  20 percent commissions on his sales,<!-- While only getting 20% of his commissions, Kauffman--> and eventually earned more than the president of the company. Kauffman became angry with the company and left in 1950 after it decreased his sales territory and cut his commission.<ref name=":1" />

=== Marion Laboratories ===
After leaving Lincoln Laboratories, Kauffman formed [[Marion Laboratories]] with a $5,000 investment. The company was originally run out of his house, and there were four employees, consisting of Kauffman and his close friends.<ref name="Marion"/> He reportedly chose to use his middle name, rather than his surname, in order to not appear to be a one-man operation.

With Kauffman as chairman, Marion Laboratories had revenues of $930 million in 1988, the year before it merged with Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals to form [[Marion Merrell Dow]]. Kauffman became chairman ''emeritus'' of the new company.<ref name="nyt obit" /> The company sale created more than 300 millionaires.<ref name="nyt obit" />

===Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation===
Kauffman established the [[Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation]]<ref>[http://www.kauffman.org Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation]</ref> in the mid-1960s with the same sense of opportunity he brought to his business endeavors, and, with the same convictions. Kauffman wanted his foundation to be innovative{{spaced ndash}} to fundamentally change people's lives. He wanted to help young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, get a quality education that would enable them to reach their full potential. He saw building enterprise as one of the most effective ways to realize individual promise and spur the economy. Today, the mission of the Kauffman Foundation follows his vision by focusing its grant making and operations on two areas: advancing entrepreneurship and improving the education of children and youth.<ref>The Philanthropy Roundtable, [http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/hall_of_fame/ewing_kauffman Ewing Kauffman]</ref>

===Kansas City Royals===
[[File:Ewing Kauffman and Cedric Tallis.jpg|thumb|200px|Kauffman with Royals [[general manager]] [[Cedric Tallis]], 1968]]
After [[1955 Kansas City Athletics season|thirteen years]] in Kansas City, the [[Oakland Athletics|Athletics]] moved to [[1968 Oakland Athletics season|Oakland]] following the [[1967 Kansas City Athletics season|1967 season]]. Inspired by his wife, who told him it would be a new frontier that would be good for him, Kauffman joined the forefront for the push for a [[1969 Major League Baseball expansion|expansion]] team in [[Kansas City, Missouri]]. On January 11, 1968, he was announced as owner of the new team, soon christened as the [[Kansas City Royals]], bringing major league baseball back to the city for the [[1969 Kansas City Royals season|1969 season]]. He hired [[Cedric Tallis]] as the first general manager for the team, as he liked what he saw from Tallis when he was an executive of the Los Angeles Angels during their process of becoming a team in 1961.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/kansas-city-royals-team-ownership-history/ | title=Kansas City Royals team ownership history – Society for American Baseball Research }}</ref> Described by one historian as "too far too ahead of his time" in terms of his management style in innovations, he strived to have the finest organization in baseball, setting a goal for a pennant in five years. Seeing the need to develop players into athletes, he established the [[Kansas City Royals Baseball Academy]] in 1971, although it closed three years later due to costs, much to the subsequent regret of Kauffman. He entertained the notions of [[Earnshaw Cook]], an early researcher and proponent of [[sabermetrics]]. On April 10, 1973, Royals Stadium opened, and it would host the [[1973 Major League Baseball All-Star Game]] a few months later; the stadium features included a privately funded fountain system that was among the largest in the world.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.mlb.com/royals/history/ballparks | title=History of Kauffman Stadium &#124; Kansas City Royals | website=[[MLB.com]] }}</ref> While the Royals did not win a pennant in their fifth season, they won their first division title in 1976 before finally breaking through with a pennant in [[1980 World Series|1980]]. Five years later, the Royals won the Series, although it was their last playoff appearance under Kauffman as owner. They reached the postseason seven times in 24 full seasons (1969-1992) with Kauffman as an owner.

Kauffman had planned to sell the team by the 1980s. He had tried to sell a significant interest in the club (with an option to become majority owner down the road) to Michael Shapiro in the winter of 1982. This fell apart when Shapiro could not come up with the deposit; Shapiro sued Kauffman a few years later to no avail.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1987/03/12/royals-kauffman-wins-suit/ | title=Royals' Kauffman Wins Suit | website=[[Chicago Tribune]] | date=March 12, 1987 }}</ref> He sold a minority stake to Avron D. Fogelman with an option for Fogelman to buy enough to be majority owner in 1991, but Fogelman had financial trouble that led him to sell back to Kauffman in 1990. Reported to have lost $7 million in 1990, Kauffman advocated for revenue sharing. In April 1993, he announced a succession plan that would see the team funded for eight years after his death to go with a board running the team to search for a new owner (as the Royals upon his death would essentially be owned by local Kansas City charities), which had to be a resident of Kansas City that would agree to not move the team (if eight years passed, a non-resident could buy the team, but the money of the sale would be distributed to charities).<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1197429/2019/09/12/the-legacy-of-ewing-kauffman-a-baseball-visionary-who-loved-his-city/ | title=The legacy of Ewing Kauffman, a baseball visionary who loved his city | last1=Jenks | first1=Jayson }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/1995/05/03/Franchises/NEW-ROYALS-OWNER-GREATER-KANSAS-CITY-COMMUNITY-FOUNDATION.aspx | title=New Royals Owner: Greater Kansas City Community Foundation | date=May 3, 1995 }}</ref> In May, he announced a diagnosis of cancer and was soon inducted into the team Hall of Fame. Despite his protests, Jackson County decided to name Royals Stadium in his honor, doing so on July 2. [[David Glass (businessman)|David Glass]], who became the interim CEO and chairman of the Royals when Kauffman died, would eventually purchase the team and become its new owner in 2000.

On November 8, 2007, Kauffman was nominated to enter the [[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum|Baseball Hall of Fame]] as part of the 2008 class;<ref>{{cite press release|date=November 8, 2007 |url = http://web.baseballhalloffame.org/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071108&content_id=5386&vkey=hof_pr |title=Executives, Managers, and Umpires to Be Considered for 2008 |publisher=[[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum]] |access-date=October 2, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071115150027/http://web.baseballhalloffame.org/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071108&content_id=5386&vkey=hof_pr |archive-date=November 15, 2007 |url-status=dead|df=mdy }}</ref> but was not elected.  He&nbsp;was later nominated and elected to the [[Kansas Sports Hall of Fame]] in 2018.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kansascity.com/sports/high-school/other-kansas-prep-sports/article213119239.html|publisher=[[Kansas City Star]]|access-date=June 14, 2018 | date=June 13, 2018 | title=Royals' Kauffman, Paul Pierce, Larry Drew among Kansas Sports Hall of Fame inductees | first=Hayden|last=Barber}}</ref>

===Project Choice===
In 1988, Kauffman launched Project Choice to the Westport High School Class of 1992.  Project Choice promised to fund post-secondary education to all students who stayed in school, did not use drugs, did not become pregnant, and were committed to being an upstanding citizen in the community.<ref name="Kauffman">{{Cite web|url=https://www.kauffman.org/emk/kauffman|title=Kauffman|website=www.kauffman.org|access-date=2019-07-15}}</ref>  To be eligible for the program, parents also had to agree to be involved in their child's education by attending meetings and participating in parent/teacher organizations and other activities. The program remained active until 2001. During those years, it expanded to five other high schools in the Kansas City metro area.<ref name="Kauffman"/>

==Personal life==
In 1962, he married [[Muriel Kauffman|Muriel Irene McBrien]].<ref name="nyt obit"/> {{citation needed span | text = He had two children from a previous marriage. | date = October 2022}}

===Death===
Suffering from [[bone cancer]], he died at his home in [[Mission Hills, Kansas]], a suburb of Kansas City on August 1, 1993 at the age of 76.<ref name="nyt obit">Pace, Eric (August 12, 1993).  [https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/02/obituaries/ewing-m-kauffman-76-owner-of-kansas-city-baseball-team.html "Ewing M. Kauffman, 76, Owner of Kansas City Baseball Team"].  ''[[The New York Times]]''.  Retrieved October 2, 2013.</ref>  His remains are interred at the [[Ewing and Muriel Kauffman Memorial Garden]] next to the remains of his wife, who died in 1995.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/ewing-and-muriel-kauffman-memorial-garden-says-no-more-organized-photos|publisher=[[KSHB-TV|KSHB TV 41]]|access-date=August 6, 2016|title=Ewing and Muriel Kauffman Memorial Garden says no more organized photos|first=Jadiann|last=Thompson|date=April 28, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160827013933/http://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/ewing-and-muriel-kauffman-memorial-garden-says-no-more-organized-photos|archive-date=August 27, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Awards and honors==
* 1932 – [[Distinguished Eagle Scout Award]] as a member of Boy Scout Troop and Ship 100 at Faxon School in Kansas City, Missouri
* 1968 – Golden Plate Award of the [[Academy of Achievement|American Academy of Achievement]]<ref>{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#business}}</ref>
• 1985 - World Series Champion, as Owner of  [[Kansas City Royals]]
* 1993 – [[Kauffman Stadium]], home to the [[Kansas City Royals]] of [[Major League Baseball]], named after Ewing Kauffman
* 2018 – [[Kansas Sports Hall of Fame]]

==See also==
{{Portal|Baseball|Biography|United States}}
* [[List of entrepreneurs]]
* [[List of people from Johnson County, Kansas]]
{{clear}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://web.baseballhalloffame.org/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071117&content_id=5421&vkey=hof_news Baseball Hall of Fame – 2008 Veterans Committee candidate profile]
*[http://www.eVenturing.org Kauffman eVenturing]
*[http://www.kauffmanfellows.org The Kauffman Fellows Program]
*[http://www.iBridgeNetwork.org The iBridge Network]
*{{Find a Grave|23072}}

{{Kansas City Royals}}
{{Kansas City Royals owners}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kauffman, Ewing}}
[[Category:1916 births]]
[[Category:1993 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American businesspeople]]
[[Category:American chairpersons of corporations]]
[[Category:American businesspeople in the chemical industry]]
[[Category:American company founders]]
[[Category:American businesspeople in the health care industry]]
[[Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:American sports executives and administrators]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Kansas]]
[[Category:American businesspeople in the pharmaceutical industry]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Kansas]]
[[Category:Deaths from bone cancer in the United States]]
[[Category:American education activists]]
[[Category:Kansas City Royals owners]]
[[Category:Patrons of schools]]
[[Category:People from Mission Hills, Kansas]]
[[Category:People from Cass County, Missouri]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Kansas City, Missouri]]
[[Category:20th-century American philanthropists]]
[[Category:Philanthropists from the Kansas City metropolitan area]]