[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 159 (Wednesday, November 12, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2343-E2344]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO ROBERT PALMER INGRAM

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. KAREN McCARTHY

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 12, 1997

  Ms. McCARTHY of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, my colleague, Mr. Dreier, and 
I, rise today to pay tribute to the life of a man who has touched so 
many lives and who has contributed so much to our community: Mr. Robert 
Palmer Ingram.
  We submit into the Record an article in honor of Mr. Ingram's memory 
and contributions as recounted by Diane Stafford in my hometown 
newspaper, the Kansas City Star:

       Robert Palmer Ingram, an indefatigable salesman and civic 
     leader, died Tuesday in his sleep at his Kansas City home. He 
     was 80 years old.
       Since arriving in Kansas City in the mid-1940s, Ingram 
     founded or led more than a dozen companies, was a director of 
     at least seven others, served as a trustee or a governor of 
     six major civic or educational organizations, was an honorary 
     consul to Belgium and held offices or memberships in many 
     other clubs, councils and committees.
       Fueled by his voracious reading, Ingram brought curiosity 
     and wise counsel to wide-ranging endeavors. He shunned the 
     spotlight but left a public imprint as the former owner and 
     publisher of Ingram's, the Kansas City monthly business 
     magazine that continues to carry his name.
       To classical music lovers, Ingram was known as the man who 
     poured millions of dollars into classical music radio station 
     KXTR, keeping it on the air for years despite 
     unprofitability. He also owned KBEA, which had a ``Music of 
     Your Life'' format. He sold those properties in 1996.
       Henry Bloch, co-founder of H&R Block Inc., said that many 
     times through the years, including Monday, he saw Ingram 
     eating lunch alone and reading at the River Club.
       ``I've known him for a long time, and I can say he did a 
     lot for Kansas City--in real estate, with the radio stations 
     and the magazines,'' Bloch said. ``He was a very nice 
     person.''
       Quick-thinking, quick-moving and often slightly disheveled, 
     Ingram whirled his thin frame from meeting to meeting, 
     wedging in reading and note scribbling whenever time would 
     allow. He and his wife, Beth Ingram, at one time said they 
     subscribed to as many as 150 periodicals.
       ``He slowed down recently, but he stayed so upbeat about 
     Kansas City,'' said Mike Morrissey, past chairman of the 
     Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, who sometimes ate 
     lunch with Ingram at the Kansas City Club. ``He was very 
     supportive of anything you ever wanted him to help you with. 
     He and Beth were very generous in the Kansas City community, 
     not only financially but with their time.''
       Former Kansas City Mayor Richard L. Berkley said he admired 
     Ingram ``for remaining active and participating in so many 
     civic, cultural and political activities. . . . It was 
     impressive to see him still come to the Civic Council 
     meetings and other events he was involved in, even when you 
     knew it was getting more difficult for him to move around.''
       Ingram's energy left a brick-and-mortar legacy for the 
     city. One project, TenMain Center, a downtown redevelopment 
     effort in the 1960s, nearly ruined his wealth and his health 
     after the intended prime tenant (the Kansas City Board of 
     Trade) and fellow investors pulled out.
       Ingram stuck with the office tower project, though, and saw 
     it through to fruition.
       At one time he owned 10 downtown buildings but in later 
     years retained ownership only of the Argyle Building, a 
     renovated tower that housed the offices of Ingram Properties 
     and his publishing enterprises.
       Ingram eschewed many outward trappings of wealth but 
     admitted a fascination with high society. Even in failing 
     health in recent months, he attended a swirl of benefits and 
     functions.
       His interest in wealth and society, in part, led to his 
     ownership of The Independent, the area's society journal.
       The Lyric Opera of Kansas City was a major beneficiary of 
     the Ingram's philanthropy since it founding in 1958. Ingram 
     money turned the old theater library into a luxurious 
     gathering space for benefactors.
       Ingram largess also created a new music library for the 
     Kansas City Symphony.
       He was born in Norfolk, Va., and grew up in a suburb of 
     Pittsburgh, where, he said, he began selling door to door 
     ``anything he could'' by age 8.
       By age 10 he was following the stock market and buying his 
     first stocks. And by age 12, he grandly noted later, he had 
     learned to use rejection as a spur to do better.
       He studied journalism at Washington and Lee University and 
     at the University of Pittsburgh but left college without 
     getting a degree because, he later said, he thought he needed 
     a job more than he needed more education.

[[Page E2344]]

       His first job was in sales at Anchor Hocking Glass Co. The 
     company dispatched him to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, 
     Michigan and back to Pennsylvania before sending him to 
     Kansas City.
       He decided to plant roots and in 1947 founded Robert P. 
     Ingram & Co., an independent manufacturers' representative 
     specializing in housewares and toys. Soon thereafter, he met 
     and married Beth (Mary Elizabeth Renfro).
       The Ingrams had two children, Marsha Jill Ingram Reynolds 
     and Robert Palmer (Chip) Ingram III, both of whom live in the 
     Kansas City area. There are four grandchildren.
       Always spurred by the desire to do civic good, Ingram 
     sometimes was thwarted. In the 1960s, for example, he was 
     part of an investor group that was outbid by Charles O. 
     Finley to buy the Kansas City Athletics baseball team.
       In the 1970s he was unsuccessful in working for an ice 
     hockey and convention center downtown.
       On balance, Ingram's successes predominated. From operating 
     the locker concession at Kansas City International Airport to 
     becoming a major investor and director of Rubbermaid, Ingram 
     earned notice for his entrepreneurship and intelligence.
       ``There are very few things in life that have given me the 
     same pleasure I have received from starting and growing 
     businesses,'' Ingram said in a promotional ad for Ingram's 
     not long before his death.
       Always, he told interviewers, he considered himself a 
     salesman. In any setting Ingram might be seen thumbing 
     through a wad of business cards, searching for the 
     appropriate one among his many interests and passing it out 
     to a prospective customer.
       Ingram's sales acumen was acknowledged in 1969, when he 
     received the Saleman of the Year award from the Advertising 
     and Sales Executive Club of Kansas City.
       In recent years Ingram made a few concessions to age. Once 
     prone to getting speeding tickets, he hired a driver to 
     shuttle him from appointment to appointment.
       But despite increased frailty, he took pride in working in 
     his office from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every Monday through 
     Friday he was in Kansas City, said Marie Brown, his executive 
     assistant.
       In recent years he and his wife split time between their 
     residence in The Walnuts, near the Country Club Plaza, and 
     their condo in Palm Beach, Fla. They also had an apartment in 
     New York.
       A lifelong Republican, Ingram relished his 1969 appointment 
     by Richard Nixon as metro chairman of the National Alliance 
     of Businessmen. He also was a member of the Points of Light 
     Foundation.
       A roundup of Ingram's business presidencies in addition to 
     Robert P. Ingram & Co. includes Ingram Investment Co., 
     Lasalle Leasing Co., KBEA Broadcasting Co., KXTR Broadcasting 
     Co., Kansas City Bus Advertising Co., Security Locker Co., 
     TenMain Center, Dow Research, Econo-Car Rental and the Argyle 
     Building Co.
       He was chairman of Ingram Media, Custom Publishing by 
     Ingram's and Ingram Properties.
       He was publisher emeritus of The Independent and the former 
     publisher of Ingram's and its predecessor, Corporate Report/
     Kansas City magazine. He sold Ingram's this year.
       He was a past director of Rubbermaid, Harzfelds, Gilbert/
     Robinson, Baltimore Bank & Trust Co. of Kansas City, American 
     Cablevision of Kansas City and Country Club Bank.
       At the time of his death he was a director of FLM 
     Industries and the Housing Development Corporation and 
     Information Center in Kansas City.
       On the civic scene, Ingram's participation was wide and 
     deep.
       He was trustee of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, 
     the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Midwest Research 
     Institute.
       He was on the board of governors of the Straight Theatre 
     Association, the American Royal Association and the Urban 
     League of Kansas City.
       He was a member of the business council of the Nelson-
     Atkins Museum of Art and the museum's Society of Fellows.
       He was a member of the Lyric Opera Guild, the Fine Arts 
     Guild of William Jewell College and the Friends of the Kansas 
     City Symphony.
       He was a member and director of the Civic Council of 
     Greater Kansas City.
       He was a past president of the Chamber of Commerce of 
     Greater Kansas City and Downtown Inc.
       Ingram was appointed to two significant public-service 
     commissions in the late 1960s. He was one of five men on a 
     six-month commission to study civil disorders in Kansas City 
     in 1968, and a year later he accepted an appointment to the 
     Capital Requirements for Public Schools Committee for the 
     Kansas City School District.
       He held memberships in the 711 Club, the Man of the Month 
     Fraternity, Alliance Francaise, the Friends of Vielles 
     Maisons Francaises, the Carriage Club, the Kansas City Club, 
     the Vanguard Club and BENS.
       Friends and family attended his funeral on October 24th at 
     Country Club Christian Church, 6101, Ward Parkway.