Harold Roe Bartle
H. Roe Bartle | |
---|---|
47th Mayor of Kansas City | |
In office 1955–1963 | |
Preceded by | William E. Kemp |
Succeeded by | Ilus W. Davis |
Personal details | |
Born | Harold Roe Bennett Sturdyvant Bartle June 25, 1901 University of Chattanooga |
Profession | Executive, philanthropist, educator, public speaker |
Nickname | The Chief |
Harold Roe Bennett Sturdyvant Bartle (June 25, 1901 – May 9, 1974), better known as H. Roe Bartle, was an American businessman,
Early life and education
Bartle was born in Richmond, Virginia, the only child of Samuel Dunn Bartle, an English immigrant and Presbyterian minister, and Ada Mae Roe, of northern Illinois.[1] The Bartle family was musical, and at age thirteen, Harold was playing the piano and organ at his father's church. The same year, he also attempted to enlist in the army, but his father produced proof of his age and had him discharged.[2]
Between 1916 and 1920, Bartle attended
Personal life
Bartle met Margaret Ann Caroline Jarvis in Lebanon, and they were married on September 26, 1923, in St. Joseph, Missouri, where his father had taken another pastorate.[6] The Bartles had one child, Margaret Roe "Jimmy" Bartle Taylor.[7] Bartle, who was 6' 4", weighed well over 200 pounds before his marriage, and he continued to gain until at one point he may have reached 375.[8]
Scouting career
Bartle was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1920 (before completing his correspondence degree) and worked for a Lebanon firm; he was also the Lebanon
In 1925, Bartle created the
Bartle's nickname, "The Chief," came from his time as a Boy Scout executive.[15] He claimed he was inducted into a local Arapaho tribe, and used the name "Chief Lone Bear" as part of the Mic-O-Say program with the Boy Scouts.[16]
Business career
While a Scouting executive, Bartle also engaged in profitable business enterprises and made shrewd investment decisions. He also served on the board of directors of numerous corporations and banks, including the largest independent liquor dealer in Missouri.
As a professional public speaker, he regularly addressed political, fraternal, educational, religious, civic, business, and service organizations. (He had a rich, powerful voice, and in
The money Bartle made in the private sector subsidized his public service and allowed him to fund organizations in which he took an interest.[22] For instance, for 30 years, he donated his Boy Scout salary to the organization. There were three Bartles, he said, the Bartle "who makes money, the Bartle who gives it away, and the Bartle who works for free."[23]
Civic, philanthropic, and religious endeavors
Bartle seemed determined to participate in as many charitable organizations as possible. He accepted thirty appointments to philanthropic boards and commissions and, in time, became an executive in virtually all of them. During World War II, he served as director of American War Dads, a soldier-welfare group.[24] After the war, from 1945 to 1952, Bartle was president of Missouri Valley College, a small coeducational school associated with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.[25]
In 1948, as a college President, Bartle founded and contributed $100,000 toward establishing the
Bartle was National President of Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity from 1931 until 1946.[28][29] Alpha Phi Omega grew from 18 chapters when he took office to 109 chapters when he stepped down. It was said that Bartle personally financed the fledgling organization.[30]
Bartle was a devout member of Central Presbyterian Church in Kansas City from 1929 until his death, although he was often not in attendance because he was filling a pulpit somewhere else. (If Bartle was called to substitute for a pastor who was ill, he needed only the time to dress and get to the church. He could work out the sermon on the way.)
Bartle's wife said she believed he "could do anything on this earth that he sets out to do....and he has more energy than any other five men alive."[32] Bartle received numerous honors and awards for his public service, including honorary degrees from at least a dozen colleges and distinguished service medals from a dozen foreign governments.[33]
Mayor
In 1955, Bartle, a Democrat, with no previous political experience, was asked to run for mayor of Kansas City on the Citizens' Association ticket. Although the Citizen's Association (of which Bartle had been a founder) had helped sweep the Pendergast political machine out of power in 1940, Bartle chose to run as an independent with Citizen Association support.[34] He was elected in April 1955.[20] However, in his reelection campaign of 1959, Bartle also accepted the tacit support of the remnants of the Pendergast machine, leading to unfounded fears about the possible revival of "boss politics." In Kansas City, the mayor was comparatively weak, effectively an at-large city councilman; but Bartle, not surprisingly, was superb at performing the inspirational and ceremonial aspects of his office.[35]
During his two terms, Bartle oversaw the
Bartle found his first term the more enjoyable. Then he had carried into office virtually the entire Citizens Association ticket. During his second term, a block of councilmen stymied his plans. Although Bartle remained on the 1963 ticket, he asked voters not to reelect him.[38]
Personality
Bartle was a
Bartle idolized his clergyman father and displayed some guilt for not having followed in his profession. Bartle continued to make major decisions only after deciding what his father would have done in a similar circumstance. But Roe Bartle hated the penury of the clergyman's life.[41] The first time he asked a girl for a date, she rejected him because he was dressed in ill-fitting, second-hand clothes. Crushed, he swore before a mirror, "hand upraised", that no child of his would ever know poverty. But once he had the money, he also acquired expensive hand-tailored suits.[41]
Death
In later years, Bartle was plagued by health problems including
Bibliography
- National Cyclopedia of American Biography. Vol. 58: 213–214. 1979.
- Taylor, Jimmy Bartle (1995). Down Home with the Chief and Miss Maggie. Leathers Publishing. ISBN 0-9646898-0-4.
- Eby, David. "Lone Bear: H. Roe Bartle".
- Keith Monroe, "Kansas City's Colossal Scouter", Scouting (September 1976), 44–46, 86.
- Hartzell Spence, "The Colossal Mayor of Kansas City", Saturday Evening Post, January 28, 1956, 17–19, 79–80.
- William S. Worley, "Bartle, H. Roe", in Lawrence O. Christensen, et al., eds., Dictionary of Missouri Biography (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1999), 31–32.
References
- ^ NCAB; The Bartles were married on November 24, 1897 in Chana, Illinois. Taylor, 18.
- ^ Taylor, 20. Bartle also developed a fine baritone singing voice. (27)
- ^ Taylor, 23–27; Monroe
- ^ Monroe, 45; Taylor, 27–29.
- ^ Cosmopolitan Magazine (April 1915), 31; Taylor, 28–29.
- ^ Taylor, 44.
- ^ Taylor, 48. She was born on Thanksgiving, November 27, 1924.
- ^ Monroe, 45–46; Taylor, 25, 45; Eby; Spence, 18. Bartle insisted on waffles every morning "swimming in butter and syrup", and he enjoyed dinners of meat (no chicken or eggs), potatoes, gravy, salad, bread, and dessert. His wife unsuccessfully tried to persuade him that he did not also need four or five slices of buttered bread with these meals.
- ^ Taylor, 41.
- ^ Taylor, 41; NCAB.
- Roman Catholic commissioner in St. Joseph, a Ku Klux Klanmob demanded he be fired. Bartle is said to have replied, "If three or more of you will step right up here onto the porch, I'll whup you immediately." The Klan never bothered him again. Monroe, 46.
- ^ NCAB. The Boy Scouts eventually awarded Bartle the organization's Silver Buffalo, Silver Antelope and Silver Beaver Awards.
- ^ Taylor, 52–53.
- ^ According to his daughter, Bartle acquired his nickname "The Chief" when the Arapaho chief Lone Bear made him a blood brother and gave Bartle his own name. Taylor, 46.
- ^ Montgomery, Rick (January 20, 2016). "H. Roe Bartle: The Chief (and mayor) who drew the Chiefs to Kansas City". The Kansas City Star. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
- ^ Schilling, Vincent (September 21, 2019). "How the Kansas City Chiefs got their name and the Boy Scout Tribe of Mic-O-Say". Indian Country Today. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
- ^ a b Spence, 18.
- ^ Taylor, 137. Spence gives the number of boards as 17. (80)
- in the next room complained he was drowning out their speaker through closed doors. Bartle replied, "Open the doors, and I'll talk to both clubs at once."
- ^ a b "The Scout Leader". Time. 1955-04-11. Archived from the original on 2008-12-15. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
- ^ a b Spence, 80.
- ^ Worley, 31; NCAB; Taylor, 137–138.
- ^ Eby.
- ^ Spence, 80; Taylor, 134–135; W. F. McDermott, "They Call Themselves War Dads", Rotarian (September 1943), 37.
- ^ a b c NCAB.
- ^ "American Humanics".
- ^ NCAB; Spence, 19.
- ^ Alpha Phi Omega Pledge Manual p. 42 Archived 2010-02-15 at the Wayback Machine. Bartle followed the founder, Frank Reed Horton, as head of the group. The National President was styled "Supreme Grand Master" until 1934.
- ^ "National Executive Board of Alpha Phi Omega" (PDF). Torch & Trefoil. Vol. 10, no. 1. May 1935. p. 2.
- ^ Eby. Alpha Phi Omega twice recognized Bartle (the only person to be so honored) as Fall Pledge Class Namesake for 1946 and 1962, presented him with its National Distinguished Service Award in 1958, and named the H. Roe Bartle Chapter Award in his honor.
- ^ Taylor, 68–69, 136.
- ^ Taylor, 140.
- ^ These included the United Kingdom, Ecuador, Belgium, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, Guatemala and Mexico. NCAB.
- ^ Time (April 11, 1955); Spence, 79. Bartle even had good words to say for his millionaire opponent, Berl Berry, a Lincoln-Mercury dealer. But when Berry promised lower taxes, Bartle replied that Berry had a 10' X 10' bed and ought to be willing to pay more taxes than those who slept in ordinary beds. Bartle had been Berry's guest, and the car dealer was chagrined that Bartle had taken advantage of his hospitality to make notes about his furnishings.
- ^ Worley, 31.
- ^ Worley, 32.
- ^ Eby; Taylor, 126.
- ^ Eby; Taylor, 126–127; Spence, 126.
- ^ Taylor, 134.
- ^ Taylor, 89.
- ^ a b Spence, 79–80.
- ^ Monroe, 86.
- firemen and six police officers. From the road from the gates of Forest Hill Cemetery to the grave site was lined with thousands of saluting scouts. Taylor, 145.
- ^ "Missouri Valley Special Collections : Item Viewer". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-01-31.
- ^ Taylor, 152, 160. The exhibit was dedicated in November 1989, two years after Margaret Bartle's death.
- ^ State Historical Society of Missouri website.
External links
- Media related to Harold Roe Bartle at Wikimedia Commons