Ewing Kauffman Ewing Marion Kauffman (September 21, 1916 – August 1, 1993) was an American pharmaceutical entrepreneur, philanthropist, and Major League Baseball owner. Born on a farm near Garden City, Missouri, the son of John S. Kauffman and the former Effie May Winders, Kauffman grew up with his sister Irma Ruth Kauffman in Kansas City, Missouri. He was bedridden for a year at age 11 with a heart ailment, during which he read as many as 40 books a month. In 1962, he married the former Muriel Irene McBrien. He had two children from a previous marriage. Suffering from bone cancer, he died, age 76, at his home in Mission Hills, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City. His remains are interred at the Ewing and Muriel Kauffman Memorial Garden next to …show more content…
Kauffman wanted his foundation to be innovative – 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 …show more content…
The stadium opened on April 10, 1973, as part of the Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City. Designed by Kivett and Meyers architects in Kansas City, the stadium incorporated the best of the recently-built Dodger Stadium andAnaheim Stadium, with 40,793 seats, all facing second base and arranged in three tiers. A construction strike delayed the opening of the stadium so Kauffman added money to make sure it would open in time for the 1973 baseball season and the 1973 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The stadium 's prominent features include water fountains beyond the outfield fence and a ten-story-high scoreboard shaped like the Royals crest, topped by a gold crown. The 322-foot-wide (98-metre) water spectacular is the largest privately funded fountain in the world. The stadium featured an artificial-turf field, which was replaced in 1995 with grass. Kauffman made his last public appearance at the stadium on May 23, 1993, when he was inducted into the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame. One month before Kauffman died, the facility was officially renamed in his honor in a ceremony at the stadium on July 2, 1993; it is the only stadium in the American League named in honor of a