James B. Nutter Sr.

James B. Nutter Sr., a mortgage-lending pioneer who helped tens of thousands of families from every walk of life achieve the dream of buying their own home, passed away at his home in Kansas City on Friday, July 7.

Jim was born Jan. 23, 1928, in Kansas City to Frank and Sybil Nutter. He was a child of the Great Depression, and he believed unequivocally that home ownership reinforced a person’s dignity, which helped strengthen families and neighborhoods and, in turn, create better communities and a better nation.

As a tall, skinny, carrot-top kid growing up in midtown Kansas City, Jim walked many a mile (saving the street car fare) to the public library, the movies and his job as a soda jerk at the corner drug store at 51st and Main streets. He salvaged abandoned soda bottles and saved his pennies. He had a savings account by the time he was 10 and was able to help his mom and dad weather the Great Depression. He valued the public education he received and the many lifelong friends he made at Bryant Elementary School, Southwest High School, Kansas City Junior College and the University of Missouri-Columbia.

James B. Nutter & Company, the company he founded in 1951 to help his friends coming home from military service find and buy homes, was one of the first mortgage lenders in America to welcome and serve returning veterans, ethnic minorities, women and other historically underserved borrowers.

Looking back at his life a few years ago, at the age of 84, Jim said: “Throughout our lives, we are given labels. One of mine has been, of course, ‘mortgage banker.’ It's a label I am very proud of. My family and I have been blessed with a successful hometown business that has allowed us to help our friends and neighbors buy and keep their homes. We're certainly no geniuses. But by simply being honest and old-fashioned Midwestern friendly, we've been able to expand the company to serve every state in America. That's the American dream. That has been our dream.”

The city’s older neighborhoods remained dear to Jim until the end. Over the years, he quietly gave much of the money he made to places like the Nutter Ivanhoe Neighborhood Center and Park, Gordon Parks Elementary School, the Kansas City Central Public Library, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Saint Luke’s Hospital and its Brain and Stroke Institute, The Boys and Girls Club, Boy Scouts of America (as a boy he earned the rank of Eagle Scout and became a Warrior in the Tribe of Mic-O-Say), the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the Della Lamb Community Center, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s Bloch Building addition and endowment initiative, the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (Nutter Family Classroom,) the UMKC School of Medicine, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the Heart of American Shakespeare Festival, the Cleaver Family YMCA and the Little Sisters of the Poor.

But of all the causes he championed, Jim was most proud of the difference he made in three venerable but once-declining neighborhoods: the housing renaissance along The Paseo, which he helped make possible by buying abandoned or foreclosed properties and underwriting the starts of 44 new and attractive but affordable homes; improvements to the old Ivanhoe neighborhood, including the removal of blighted properties and renovation of an old fire station for use as a neighborhood center, complete with an innovative and accessible playground; and personally collecting and restoring dozens of colorful homes (including the landmark 1847 Scarritt house), flower gardens and office buildings in the area of Westport affectionately known as “Nutterville.” Jim also contributed to the renovation of Mill Creek Park in the Westport/Plaza area, helping to make it a walker/jogger-friendly destination, and the restoration of the Delbert Haff Fountain at Meyer Blvd. and Swope Parkway.

Growing up, Jim learned some hard-knock lessons about loyalty, loss and hard work when his family lost a little farm and their home to foreclosure in the 1930s. As a boy, he loved to take walks and talk religion and politics with his father, Frank, a Kansas City Times copy editor and reporter.

“My father always taught me that if you do the right thing, eventually good things will happen,” Jim once recalled. “And he was right.”

He adored his mother, Sybil Silkwood Nutter, and later dedicated to her memory the creative and whimsical park (complete with a giant working piano) that he built in front of Children’s Mercy Hospital to bring a little fun and happiness to young patients and their families.

In a short speech he gave at William Jewell College in 2015 after receiving the William F. Yates Award for Distinguished Community Service, the school’s highest non-academic honor, Jim quoted an old Celtic proverb: “It is in the shelter of each other that the people live,” and thanked his late mother and father for instilling in him the belief that it is every man’s responsibility to use the blessings he is given to help his neighbors in times of need.

Jim took great pride in the fact that his company made a conscious decision never to make sub-prime or “junk” loans – the kind that put so many American families in financial peril in the early and mid-2000s.

Although his business reach extended to all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and his political influence on issues like fair housing and urban redevelopment stretched to the political heart of Washington, D.C., Jim Nutter lived humbly and gave away much of his accrued wealth to dozens of charities and causes, including Habitat for Humanity, Children’s Mercy Hospital, St. Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, the Mayo Clinic and the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he studied in the 1940s and where the Commons and Information Center at Ellis Library now bears his name. Jim always had a soft spot for the underdog, whether on two legs or four, and he gave liberally to animal-protection organizations like Wayside Waifs.

After serving honorably in the U.S. Army at the conclusion of WW II, Jim returned to the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he graduated in 1949. Good with numbers (a skill he admitted honing in barracks and dormitory card games), Jim learned the mortgage trade as a loan processor for Charles F. Curry & Co. In 1951, he hung out his own shingle, and his business thrived on hard work, fair and equitable lending practices, and his uncanny sixth sense for a borrower’s character. Jim refused to adhere to the discriminatory lending practices of the day, and he followed his heart and instincts in providing mortgages to African-Americans and other minority groups. He was also one of the first lenders to accept a woman’s income in order for a family to be able to buy a home and in the 1960s instituted one of the nation’s first mortgage forbearance programs, which provided temporary payment relief for homeowners dealing with a job loss, disability, or other unique, short-term hardships. The government later emulated with a forbearance program of its own, using Nutter & Company’s voluntary initiative as a model. Jim always attributed the bulk of his company's success to the ideas, hard work and personable, professional service of James B. Nutter & Company’s 300-plus loyal employees.

As his business grew, so did Jim's interest and involvement in local, state and national politics. His agenda was rarely, if ever, personal. He led and financed countless efforts to upgrade Kansas City’s infrastructure and essential services, especially police and fire protection, jails, streets, curbs, sidewalks and streetlights, which he considered essential elements of safe, livable neighborhoods. Jim was a lifelong Democrat, and his backing and savvy advice were considered major advantages for candidates for mayor, city council, school board, county and state legislatures, governor, Congress and even president. Jim, the Star once wrote, is “a behind the scenes diesel for the Democrats.” Another publication called him “the friendly giant” of Kansas City business and politics. Indeed, he was privileged to meet 11 American presidents, including Franklin D. Roosevelt (a teenage Jim ran between security agents to say “hello” to FDR), Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon (“I didn’t shake his hand”), Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Among the many honors Jim received – and rarely talked about – were: the Missourian Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Areas of Business and Civics; the Mizzou Alumni Association’s Faculty-Alumni Award; the Salvation Army “Others” Award; the Kansas City Spirit Award; the Historic Kansas City Foundation’s Jane Fifield Flynn Lifetime Achievement in Preservation Award; the Mel Carnahan “Good Guy” Award from the Greater Kansas City Women’s Political Caucus; UNICO’s Man of the Year Award; the Midwest Innocence Project’s Sean O’Brien Award; the ACLU of Kansas and Missouri’s Founder’s Award; Bank of America’s Neighborhood Excellence Initiative Local Hero Award; First Call’s Karen McCarthy Public Service Award; the Harry Wiggins Public Service Award from the Committee for County Progress; the St. Patrick’s Day Parade’s Mike Murphy Honorary Irishman of the Year; the Barstow School’s Honorary Alumni Award; the Garden Club of America Zone XI Commendation; the Missouri Women’s Leadership Coalition Citation, and the Jackson County Democratic Women’s Legends Award.

Jim was proud to have been inducted into the Southwest High School Hall of Fame in 2007, and on the occasion of Jackson County’s 175th anniversary, he was named one of the most influential people in the county’s history.

In 2012, Jim also proudly accepted the Ewing M. Kauffman Distinguished Eagle Scout Award, was recognized as International Rotary Club 13’s Man of the Year, humbled by the Little Sisters of the Poor at their “Of Saints and Miracles Luncheon.” Those honors were duly noted in proclamations issued by the Missouri House of Representatives, the Missouri Senate, the City of Kansas City and the Jackson County Legislature.

With his wife and love of his life, Annabel, Jim was a longtime supporter and member of the Children’s Circle of Care at Children’s Mercy Hospital. The Nutters’ personal gift helped make possible the construction of Children’s Mercy East in Independence, Mo. In recognition of Nutters’ generosity, the Nancy Nutter Moore Garden was dedicated in 2013 in memory of their daughter, Nancy, who succumbed to cancer in 2004. The Nutters then commissioned the noted artist Tom Corbin to create a loveable, lifelike and eminently pet-able sculpture of a dog to grace the garden and delight the young patients at Children’s Mercy.

In 2013 Jim received the Henry W. Bloch Human Relations Award from the Jewish Community Relations Bureau, and Civil Rights and Legacy awards from the NAACP chapters of Olathe and Kansas City, respectively, and he was appointed by the U.S. Senate to the World War I Centennial Commission. At Christmastime that same year, four blocks of Broadway Boulevard, in Midtown were designated “Jim Nutter, Sr. Way” in his honor. In 2014, Jim was named Doctor of Medicine Honoris Causa by the UMKC School of Medicine, and served as honorary chairman of The Midwest Innocence Project's Faces of Innocence Banquet. That same year, a portion of Broadway, between Westport Road and 43rd Street was named “Honorary Jim Nutter, Sr. Way.” In June 2015, he was honored as one of the nation’s Outstanding Philanthropists at the Woodmark Children’s Forum in Washington, D.C., and in September he received the William F. Yates Distinguished Service Medallion, the highest non-degree award given by William Jewell College. That same year, the Eastside YMCA was renamed the James B. Nutter YMCA, due to Jim’s uncommon generosity and concern for urban children and neighborhoods, and in October Jim was honored to receive the Kirk Family Philanthropic Award for his continued support of the Y's vision and mission. In November 2015, Jim and Annabel were named Kansas City’s Philanthropists of the Year for “having quietly donated millions of dollars and provided volunteer leadership and support to a host of non-profit organizations …and given countless hours to make Kansas City a better place to work, play and live for all its residents.”

Jim and his beloved wife, Annabel Fisher Nutter, loved all animals, but especially dogs. They brought home many a friend from Wayside Waifs over the years, and pitched in much time and money to help rejuvenate the south Kansas City shelter and make it one of the premier no-kill animal shelters in the country.

Wealth and accolades aside, Jim considered himself the luckiest man in Kansas City for having been married for nearly 63 years to Annabel Fisher Nutter, who survives him. He loved and was proud of his children, the late Nancy Ann Moore, and James B. Nutter Jr. (and wife Sonya), who survives him as president and CEO of James B. Nutter & Company, and his grandchildren: Russ Michael Moore, who he and Annabel helped raise after the passing of Nancy; and Gabriel James, Aliza Kenedy and Dylan Reece Nutter. He also is survived by his nephew, James Wimberley, and a great-niece, Jade Wimberley.

In keeping with Jim’s colorful character, civic spirit and love of that place called home, thousands of flowers will continue to bloom each year in his memory in the area of old Westport that will forever be known as “Nutterville.”

Visitation for family and friends will be Wednesday, July 12 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 W. 47th St. Funeral Services will be Thursday, July 13 beginning at 10 a.m. at the Country Club Christian Church, 6101 Ward Parkway. Online condolences may be offered at www.mcgilleymidtownchapel.com. Arrangements: McGilley Midtown Chapel, 816-753-6200.