UMKC Hall of Fame Spotlight - Stan Durwood
12/31/2008 1:00:00 PM | General, Athletics
by Dan Stroud
Stanley H. Durwood was called an innovator, a theater magnate, and a man of great feistiness. He transformed his family's Durwood Theaters from a little known group of small venues into the AMC theater chain, one of the largest in the world with more than 2,700 screens across the globe, and years later he went on to help transform UMKC Athletics as well.
Though he traveled across the country to attend Harvard University and across the world as a navigator in the U. S. Air Force during World War II, Durwood never wavered in his love of the Heartland.
It is widely known that it was largely his enthusiasm for UMKC Athletics that saw the school through its Division I transformation.
Stanley Durwood Foundation trustee Raymond F. Beagle, Jr. remarked earlier this year that it was likely Durwood's check for $500,000 in 1986 that allowed UMKC to complete its transition to NCAA Division I status.
Because of his efforts, Durwood was awarded the Chancellor's Medal in 1994, which is the highest non-academic honor the University can bestow on a community member.
The theater magnate passed away after a long bout with esophageal cancer on July 14, 1999. But his legacy has remained on the UMKC campus, both in the athletic offices and in the university classrooms.
The Durwood Foundation and its trustees have continued in his stead to support worthwhile efforts on the UMKC campus. Besides working to get student-athletes scholarships, the Durwood Foundation established a creative writing fellowship in the English Department designed to keep them competitive in the search for talented graduate students.
Since 2005, the Foundation has pledged more than $1.3 million in grants to several University initiatives spread among several areas including The Conservatory of Music and Dance and the School of Dentistry.
On April 9, 2008, the Stanley H. Durwood Foundation pledged $5 million dollars to UMKC to kick off plans to build a $9 million dollar soccer complex on the Volker campus.
It was a watershed day for the university and yet another generous offering spurred by a man who is perhaps the greatest Kangaroo benefactor the Heartland has yet to know.
(This is the eighth of a nine-part series featuring the inaugural UMKC Athletics Hall of Fame class.)
Hall of Fame Features
- Bill Frerking - Men's Basketball- Katie Houlehan - Women's Basketball- Robert Russell - Men's Golf- Larry Scheller - Men's Soccer- Ronnie Schmitz - Men's Basketball - Catalina Suarez-Moss - Volleyball - Matthew Voelker - Track & Field
