Kenneth A. Spencer

Kenneth Aldred Spencer (January 25, 1902-February, 19, 1960) was a Kansas coal mine owner who transformed a government surplus factory into the world's biggest ammonium nitrate producer. Money from his and his wife's estate was donated to philanthropies throughout the Kansas City, Missouri area.

He was born in Columbus, Kansas but grew up in Pittsburg, Kansas.

Spencer graduated from the University of Kansas in 1926 and went into his father's business of Pittsburg & Midway Coal Mining Company in Pittsburg, Kansas.

In 1941 the War Department contacted him about operating an weapons grade ammonia nitrate plant in Galena, Kansas that would become the Jayhawk Ordnance Works. He would say later:

:They wanted us to build and operate a big basic chemical plant. I didn't know about operating such a plant, but they told us anyone who could operate an electric shovel, move 30 or 40 feet of overburden to get an 18-inch seam of coal, and make it pay, could operate anything.

He set up the Military Chemical Works, Inc. as a subsidiary of Pittsburg & Midway with himself as President and built the plant by 1943 with it producing 14,500 tons a month. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,793111,00.html Jayhawk Goes Civilian - Time Magazine - June 17, 1946] ]

U.S. ordnance facilities were placed in the mid-U.S. during World War II. Other plants to be built and owned by others included the Kansas Ordnance Plant at Parsons, Kansas, the Sunflower Ordnance Plant at DeSoto, Kansas, the Ozark Ordnance Plant at El Dorado, Arkansas. [ [http://www.emporia.edu/business/kbhfhistdetail.php?k_id=11 Historical Awards Recipient - 1995 - emporia.edu]

After the war with help from J.H. Whitney & Company he entered into a lease with a option to buy (which he did in 1951) the plant to use the ammonia nitrate into fertilizer under the new name of Spencer Chemical. He succeeded his father as head of the Pittsburg and Midway. It was so successful that he was able to large a foundation by 1949.

Spencer would also buy plants in Calumet City, Illinois, Henderson, Kentucky, Vicksburg, Mississippi, Fort Worth, Texas and Orange, Texas. [http://cas.umkc.edu/chem/kcacs/spencer/AwardLogistics/history.html]

Spencer was one of the nine original founders of the Midwest Research Institute. Its first mission was finding peaceful use of ammonium nitrate [http://www.mriresearch.org/AboutMRI/Breakthroughs.asp] He would be chairman of the Board of Trustrees from 1954 to 1957. [http://ead.diglib.ku.edu/xml/ksrl.kc.spencerkenneth.html]

Helen Foresman Spencer

Helen Elizabeth Foresman (November 8, 1902-February 15, 1982) was born in Joplin, Missouri and grew up in Amarillo, Texas and spent high school in Pittsburg, Kansas where she married Kenneth Spencer on January 6, 1927. They moved to Kansas City, Missouri in 1940.

Following the success of the Spencer Chemical Company, they formed the Spencer Foundation in 1949. When Kenneth died in 1960, she liquidated the companies selling Spencer to Gulf Oil and then oversaw the Kenneth A. and Helen F. Spencer Foundation until her death in 1982. [ [http://ead.diglib.ku.edu/xml/ksrl.kc.spencerhelen.html Guide to the Helen Foresmen Spencer Collection - ku.edu] ]

The Spencer Chemical Corporation name disappeared with the new owners. The Pittsburg and Midway company continued to operate under that name under its eventual owner Chevron although no longer mining in Kansas. That company name was abolished in 2007 when Chevron formally consolidated its mining operations under the Chevron Mining name. [ [http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2007/11/19/story7.html?jst=s_cn_hl Chevron executive bullish on growth of coal industry - Denver Business Journal - November 16, 2007] ]

Philanthropies

*Kenneth Spencer Research Library - University of Kansas
*Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art - University of Kansas
*Kenneth Aldred Spencer Memorial Chapel - University of Kansas Medical Center
*Spencer Art Reference Library - Nelson Art Gallery
*Kenneth A. Spencer Chemistry Building - University of Missouri - Kansas City
*Helen Foresman Spencer Theatre for the Performing Arts - (home of the Kansas City Repertory Theatre at the University of Missouri - Kansas City
*Helen Foresman Spencer Rare Book Room Addition - Linda Hall Library, University of Missouri - Kansas City
*Spencer Auditorium - Midwest Research Institute
*Kenneth A. Spencer Laboratories Building - Midwest Research Institute
*Helen F. Spencer Center for Education - Saint Luke's Hospital (Kansas City, Missouri)
*Medieval Wing housing Quayle Bible Collection - Baker University
*Claude Monet's "Boulevard des Capucines, Paris" - Nelson Art Gallery
*Edgar Degas "Repetition de Ballet" - Nelson Art Gallery

References