L
LEADERSHIP Business Leader Profiles
THE LEGACY OF JOHN Q. HAMMONS The man, the myth, the legend. John Q. Hammons was one of Springfield’s greatest developers, and many Springfield attractions still bear his name. BY ETTIE BERNEKING, the full story ran in the January 2019 issue of Biz 417
BECOMING JOHN Q. uring the prime of his career, around , ohn .’s estimated wealth was million. e was listed in Forbes maga ine’s list of the richest people in the nited States. ut ohn . was not born wealthy. here were no silver spoons, no trust funds. Instead, there were dairy cows and debt. ohn . was born in airview, issouri, in . is family owned and operated a dairy farm until the reat epression tightened its grip, and the family lost the farm. overty knocked at ohn .’s door for the first uarter of his life. is first ob teaching science, history and physical education at assville unior igh brought in ust a month. is first business venture mortarless bricks went bust after two years, and ohn . lost 6 , . s ohn . told it, his first success came when he married uanita . a ter in . or the entirety of their 6 -year marriage, ohn . re-
30
THE CENTENNIAL
ferred to uanita as rs. ammons, and even in their early days, he warned rs. ammons that business would be at the center of his life. I didn’t have anything, he wrote. ut I told her that I was going to be successful in business. o dig his way out from under the debt he had accumulated when his mortarless bricks business went belly up, ohn . started developing rental properties. World War II had ust ended, and veterans were returning home to find few housing options available to them. he market had a need, and ohn . had a vision. y the time he was , he had accumulated enough land to begin development of his newest pro ect yet Southern ills.
“
O u c o m b e H a in v
r w h o le m u n ity w o u ld d iffe r e n t if m m o n s d id n ’t e s t in u s .”
—Brent Dunn y the late ’ s, ohn . teamed up with contractor oy Winegardner with plans to enter the hotel industry. Swankier hotels at the time like oliday Inn were taking up a larger chunk of the market, and ohn . and Winegardner wanted a piece of that pie. So they approached harles emmons Wilson, the founder of oliday Inn, and asked about buying into the franchise. s the story goes, Wilson gave ohn . and Winegardner days to find locations for their hotels. ach one was , , says ebra Shant art, the previous senior vice president and general counsel at ohn . ammons o-
John Q. Hammons
Photos courtesy Missouri Sports Hall of Fame
here are a few things you should know about ohn . ammons. is name was not ohn, and his birthday did not fall on residents ay as he liked to say. ammons known better as ohn . was actually born ames uentin ammons. or nearly years, ohn .’s e ecutive assistant, an obbins, watched her boss fib about his name, age and birthday. She watched him send do ens of cards out on other’s ay and poinsettias on hristmas. She got calls when he ran through stop signs, and she brought him his one cup of coffee each day. She watched as ammons’ name popped up not only in Springfield but around the country. y the time he died on ay 6, , at the age of , ammons had built hotels in states and was responsible for some of Springfield’s best-known buildings including ammons ower, ighland Springs, ammons ield, niversity la a and onvention enter, uanita . ammons all for the erforming rts and the issouri Sports all of ame.
