Lamar Hunt Jr.

Early life & education

Lamar Hunt Jr. was born to Lamar and Rose Mary Whittle Hunt on October 20, 1956. He grew up in Dallas, Texas, where he spent the first 11 years of his life. Lamar and Rose Mary Hunt separated when Lamar Hunt Jr. was five years old and divorced In the summer of 1963. His childhood was spent between both parents, his father and his father's new wife, Norma Knobel, whom he married in 1964 and his mother and her new husband, a Texas businessman named John David Carr.

As a young man, Lamar Hunt Jr. attended private school at St. Mark's School of Texas, an all-boys school located in North Dallas. During his tenure at St. Mark's, Lamar Hunt Jr. played football, basketball, track, and tennis. Lamar Hunt Jr. showed an early aptitude for music learning to play the flute and a bit of piano. Lamar Hunt Jr.'s interest in music continued throughout his time at St. Mark's, where he played flute as a member of the band and orchestra. After graduating from high school, Lamar Hunt Jr. auditioned for five different colleges that were known for their music programs, ultimately choosing the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (UCCCM).

During his time at UCCCM, Lamar Hunt Jr. performed in a number of different types of ensembles and continued to refine his musical talents while also pursuing his interests in other academic pursuits. Years later, Lamar Hunt Jr. would return to school as a graduate student at Dallas Baptist University from 2001 through 2003, where he studied cognitive-behavioral therapy and received a Master of Arts in Counseling in May of 2003.

Music career

While in high school, Hunt Jr. studied with a musician from the Dallas Symphony and fell in love with classical music, a passion that has followed him throughout his life. After graduating from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 1979, Lamar Hunt Jr. auditioned for the Kansas City Symphony and earned the position of second flute in the orchestra.

Hunt Jr. performed with the Kansas City Symphony for ten years while teaching flute at the University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC), as well as private flute lessons both in his home and at the Music-Arts Institute located in Independence, Missouri. Along with several other musicians and members of the orchestra, Lamar Hunt Jr. helped to start Summerfest Concerts, a chamber music series that recently celebrated its 25th season.

Lamar Hunt Jr.'s notable performances include performing Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to a standing-room-only crowd in a collaboration between the orchestra and the King Singers that was recorded and shown nationally on PBS stations. Lamar Hunt Jr. also recorded an album at St. James Cahtholic Church in Liberty, MO of Bach's flute sonatas in 1990.

Lamar Hunt Jr.'s continues to support music in the Kansas City community today as an active board member with the Kansas City Symphony.

Professional career

As a founder of Loretto Companies, Lamar Hunt Jr. has four distinct ventures, all dedicated to serving the Kansas City community in various ways. The Loretto Companies were named for the staircase at Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The story goes that when the Sisters of Loretto finished the chapel, they realized that there was no good way to access the choir loft. The answer to their prayers came when a visiting gentleman offered to engineer and build a staircase for the sisters. After completing the project he left silently without receiving any payment. What he left behind was an architectural marvel that is still visited today. Like that visiting architect, the mission of the Loretto Companies is not recognition or recompense but to help others for the sake of helping them.

The Loretto Foundation helps to build strong families and encourage spiritual growth by focusing on Catholic grade schools and high schools in the greater Kansas City area. Other organizations, including the Bright Futures Fund, Ozanam, Children's Center for the Visually Impaired, and Variety KC are also active charities. Lamar Hunt Jr.'s dedication to music isn't left out of the mix, either, as the Loretto Foundation also contributes to the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation.

Under Loretto Commercial, Hunt Jr. works to develop commercial projects that thrive and are sustainable, in order to add to the quality of life in Kansas City.

Loretto Sports Ventures is closely tied to the Kansas City Mavericks ECHL hockey franchise, with a current overall goal of growing the game of ice hockey in Kansas City and engaging more young people to pick up the sport. Another goal of Loretto Sports Ventures is to help make Kansas City a destination for ice hockey among travel teams across the Midwest while also bringing the highest level of youth hockey to the marketplace.

Loretto Properties is a commercial and residential real estate development company dedicated to building projects of all types without leaving behind those communities where the citizens are most vulnerable.

Lamar Hunt Jr. has been asked to speak to a variety of groups within the business community—not to mention students who might want to learn from the experience that he has gathered. Highlights include speaking to the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce about leadership.

Sports teams

Lamar Hunt Jr. extended the Hunt family sports legacy by purchasing the Missouri Mavericks ice hockey team in January of 2015, which will become the Kansas City Mavericks in June of 2017.

In addition to owning the Mavericks, Lamar Hunt Jr. is part of the founding and operating family of the Kansas City Chiefs NFL team. Hunt Jr. enjoys a beneficial interest in the Hunt Family Foundation as a way to be further involved and give back to the community in ways both big and small. The Foundation has teamed up with Tyson Chicken and Harvesters to help address hunger and also sponsor a mentoring program for at-risk kids.

Board memberships & charities

Lamar Hunt Jr. also commits time to serving on a number of different advisory boards as another way to lend a hand and give back to the communities that have meant so much to him. Over the years, Lamar Hunt Jr. has served on school boards, Dynamic Catholic Board of Directors, and the board for Hunt Midwest Enterprises, to name a few.

Hunt Jr. also serves on the Catholic Radio Network founded by Jim O'Laughlin in 2004. As a member of the advisory board and an underwritter, his involvement has helpedgrown to include 17 stations all over Kansas, Missouri, and Colorado.

Hunt Midwest Enterprises (HME) is part of the legacy left behind by Lamar Hunt's desire to invest in and give back to the Kansas City community. Lamar Hunt Jr. stewards this heritage as an active board member in projects that match its core values of quality, integrity, safety, and service. Lamar Hunt Jr. evaluates the various projects presented to him by Hunt Midwest's management team and helps to develop the vision that was established by his father.

Hunt Jr. also volunteered with the Archbishop's Case Review Task Force, which examined the major needs in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas in order to come up with approaches and fundraising solutions that helped meet some urgent needs. In 2012, the Task Force completed a private appeal campaign and raised $14 million for various projects in the Kansas City area.

Lamar Hunt Jr. also gives his time, resources, and support to charities, organizations, and programs such as the Bright Futures Fund, which helps provide scholarships for students in need to attend Catholic schools throughout the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph without a financial barrier. The Bright Futures Fund helps students to discover their potential, build a foundation of social justice, and develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The fund also helps build a community where families feel safe and welcome and schools that engage both students and their parents in their educational journey.

He has also participated in Read Across America, a program in which adults simply give up a part of their day to read to children at schools. Lamar Hunt Jr. participated in both Independence, Missouri and Columbus, Ohio and found the experience to be very moving. "Reading is so fundamental and important that any adult can be a role model for children in this critical life skill," he says. "I was told that, as a male, reading to students had a particularly great impact because so often fathers do not do this with their children."