HARRISONVILLE, Mo. — Metro philanthropist Del Dunmire was laid to rest on Friday evening.
People in Harrisonville are among those who remember him as being a larger-than-life character. Dunmire, who grew up poor in an eastern Pennsylvania mining town, spent most of his life in the Kansas City area building a fortune.
It’s been said Dunmire lived his life like a shooting star. The 82-year old millionaire philanthropist passed away on Tuesday morning after battling illness. It was October 1958, when a young Dunmire, then an enlisted man in the U.S. Air Force, robbed a bank in Abilene, Kansas, and was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
His stay behind bars was shortened to only two years due to his good behavior. When his prison sentence ended, Dunmire dedicated himself to business and to help others who were in need.
Mark Dunmire, one of Del Dunmire’s five children, beamed with pride while describing his father’s work ethic. Mark Dunmire says his dad worked 100 hours per week at four jobs, including the creation of airplane parts in his garage for major airlines. That was an enterprise he used to amass a fortune, and to establish Growth Industries, Inc., a company that would make him wealthy.
“My dad was a medium-sized fish in a really small pond,” Mark Dunmire told FOX 4 News.
Mark Dunmire says the bulk of his father’s fortune went toward numerous charitable causes, including Children’s Mercy Hospital and the Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission.
“He’s contributed millions of dollars — tens of millions of dollars — to philanthropic causes throughout the Kansas City area and around the nation,” Mark Dunmire said.
The city of Harrisonville was one of his favorite projects. Dunmire spent millions buying up blighted property on the downtown square with the intention of turning the city into a shopping destination.
“He sensed value,” Mark Dunmire said. “He was a capitalist.”
“He had a magnetic quality. People would seek him out of a crowd.”
“He had a full crew working on the square for several years,” Obie Carl, a Harrisonville businessman, said.
Carl worked as a realtor for 25 years, and sold many of those downtown properties to Dunmire.
“Whenever he would come to town around the square, people would say, ‘hey, Del’s in town.
Did you know that?’ He would be carrying around a sack of 100 dollar bills,” Carl said, adding that many of those bills were given away to complete strangers.
Longtime Kansas Citians will remember Dunmire’s 1986 wedding, which was held on Barney Allis Plaza. Thousands of people attended the public service, which was Dunmire’s second marriage.
Celebrities attended and performed at the wedding ceremony and reception. Mark Dunmire said his father paid for hundreds of meals, hotel rooms and drinks. The bill ran a cool $1 million, according to Dunmire.
And Dunmire would tell people it all started with a bad decision — robbing that bank.
“As my father has said many times, he had one helluva ride,” Mark Dunmire said.
Del Dunmire is father to five children, four of whom are still alive. His final resting place laid is Mt. Moriah Cemetery in Overland Park. The Dunmire family says they expect to continue many of Del’s business interests and charitable contributions.