Ewing Marion
Kauffman was born on a farm in Garden City, Missouri,
in 1916. His family moved to Kansas City when he was a boy,
and he called Kansas City home for the rest of his life.
Following
his service in the Navy during World War II, Ewing Kauffman
began working as a salesman for a pharmaceutical company. In
1950, his innately entrepreneurial spirit led him to start his
own pharmaceutical company in the basement of his home.
He named his
company Marion Laboratories Inc., using his middle name rather
than his last name so his customers wouldn’t perceive him as a
one-man operation. In his first year in business, he had sales
of $36,000 and a net profit of $1,000. When he sold his
company to Merrell Dow in 1989, it had grown to become a
global diversified health care giant with nearly $1 billion in
sales and employing 3,400 associates.
Mr. Kauffman
brought more to Kansas City than an international business.
With his purchase of the Royals in 1968, he brought major
league baseball back to his hometown, boosting civic pride and
the city’s economy. With the same entrepreneurial vision he
had always used as his guide, he made the Royals a model
sports franchise. The team developed young players who won six
division titles, two American League pennants, and a World
Series championship in 1985.
Ewing
Kauffman’s most enduring legacy to his community and the world
is the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. He established the
Foundation with the same sense of opportunity he brought to
his business endeavors, and, with the same convictions.
Kauffman wanted his foundation to be innovative—to dig deep
and get at the roots of issues to fundamentally change
outcomes in 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 mirrors Ewing Kauffman’s
commitment to fostering both ends of the opportunity
continuum: education and entrepreneurship.
An
Entrepreneur's Story
On
October 27, 1985, a baseball sailed through the crisp autumn
sky and settled into Darryl Motley’s glove for the final out
of the seventh game of the World Series. Kansas City
celebrated the greatest comeback in World Series history, and
the Royals reigned as the first American League expansion team
ever to win the championship.
Twenty
years later, that championship win over the cross-state rival
St. Louis Cardinals remains the Royals’ most celebrated
moment, but it was not the pivotal moment in the story of the
team’s owner, Ewing Kauffman. After all, in the history of
sports franchises, there have been thousands of team owners.
Scores have won the World Series. Some baseball team owners
have changed the course of the game. A handful became leading
philanthropists and established foundations to benefit society
in meaningful ways. Only one did all of these things and
constructed a plan that benefited his team and the community
it represents years after his death. This is Ewing Kauffman’s
remarkable legacy.
To
chronicle the life and times of its founder, the Ewing Marion
Kauffman Foundation has produced a vivid and enduring film
biography that highlights the events and influences that
shaped Ewing Kauffman’s life and formed the basis of his donor
intent for the Kauffman Foundation.
The film,
produced by the award-winning production company Eleventh Day
Entertainment, captures Ewing Kauffman’s unconventional
approach to life—as an entrepreneur, baseball team owner, and
philanthropist—and introduces his inspiring story to a whole
new generation of Americans. The documentary, which premiered
in the fall on Kansas City’s PBS affiliate, KCPT, creates a
better understanding of Ewing Kauffman and his legacy for the
Kauffman Foundation and his hometown.
Mr.
Kauffman grew Marion Laboratories from modest beginnings into
a billion-dollar pharmaceutical giant. He hired mavericks and
encouraged them to bring new thinking and innovations that
revolutionized the industry. His business succeeding beyond
his wildest dreams, Mr. Kauffman turned his vigor, intellect,
and wealth to a style of philanthropy that would dig deep and
get at the roots of issues rather than merely addressing the
symptoms.
Ewing
Kauffman came to baseball ownership reluctantly. With his wife
Muriel’s support and encouragement, he stepped up to the plate
when he was convinced that the team would bring economic
muscle to Kansas City. Once he committed to the idea, he
poured the same energy, resources, and entrepreneurial genius
that made him a successful businessman and philanthropist into
the team. His competitive nature and instinct for innovation
built a model sports franchise, a spectacular stadium, and a
championship-caliber team.
Even in
death, Ewing Kauffman left in place heroic measures to ensure
the continued presence of the Royals in Kansas City. His intricate plan was a brilliant and noble
gesture to keep the Royals in Kansas City,
sell the team for a fair price, and have proceeds from the
sale go to local charities. It was an act of love for his
hometown that few have matched.
Mr.
Kauffman’s visionary instincts and positive influence extended
beyond the game. His response to his players’ involvement in
baseball’s drug scandal was to sow the seeds of the Kauffman
Foundation and its pragmatic, fact- and research-based
approach to philanthropy that concentrates on finding novel
solutions to society’s problems.
Ewing
Kauffman lived life with a daring desire to shape the future
and make others’ lives better. He remains a beloved figure,
remembered for all that he brought to Kansas City and the
nation, and for all that he gave.
