Former Missouri governor and U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, who was the youngest person ever elected to the state’s highest office, died Tuesday. He was 86.
Bond was on a Missouri ballot nine times and lost only two races, a bid for Congress in 1968 and his bid for a second consecutive term as governor in 1976. He went on to win a new term as governor in 1980 and four subsequent elections to the Senate starting in 1986.
When he was elected auditor in 1970, Bond was the first Republican to win that office since 1928. When he was elected governor, Bond was the first Republican to win that office since 1940.
In his first term as governor, Bond was seen as a moderate, working to strengthen consumer protection laws and backing the Equal Rights Amendment. The latter position, as well as his support for President Gerald Ford against Ronald Reagan for the 1976 GOP presidential nomination cost him support in his party and was blamed in part for his loss for re-election.
In his second term, Bond was faced with a major budget shortfall and economic recession. To combat the recession, Bond worked with lawmakers to pass a $600 million bond issue to fund new state facilities and college campus buildings.
The Parents as Teachers program was also launched in Bond’s second term, about the same time his son Sam Bond was born. When he became a senator, Bond sponsored legislation to make it a national program.
“I think that Parents as Teachers is Missouri’s greatest export,” Bond said in an oral history interview in 2014. “We believe that when you advocate Parents as Teachers, you are telling people across the country that Parents as Teachers is Missouri’s greatest export.”
In that same interview, Bond said “the job of governor was one of the most satisfying jobs I’ve ever had.”
Bond was born in Mexico, Missouri, the grandson of the founder of A.P. Green Industries, a fireclay manufacturer and a major employer at the time.
He attended a boarding school in Massachusetts, Princeton University as an undergraduate and studied law in Virginia, practicing law in Washington, D.C., until he returned home in 1967. His time away became an issue in the 1972 campaign for governor, when opponents alleged he had violated the Constitutional requirement that governors be residents of the state for 12 years prior to their election.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled Bond was qualified to be governor because he always intended to return to Missouri despite his years away.
“It has been said that residence is largely a matter of intention, to be determined not only from the utterances of the person whose residence is in issue but also from his acts and in the light of all the facts and circumstances of the case,” the ruling in Bond’s case stated.
As a senator, Bond became known for his work on the Senate Intelligence Committee, his commitment to national defense and, as illustrated by buildings like the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center at the University of Missouri, the source of earmarked federal funds for local projects.
In a tribute on the Senate floor in 2010, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, praised Bond as a fighter and a man of honor.
“There was never a doubt in all of these years of Kit Bond’s service that this was not a man of the very highest integrity,” McCaskill said. “And finally, a work ethic. And gee howdy, Missourians want a work ethic. They want somebody who understands that they are working hard and they want to see you working hard, and that is exactly what Senator Bond has done for these 42 years.”
At a retirement dinner in Bond’s honor in 2010, Thomas Payne, then-dean of the University of Missouri’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, hoisted a large cardboard cutout of an ATM machine with Bond’s face on it in reference to the numerous appropriations Bond helped secure for the school.
“You’re the chief purveyor of porcine products,” Payne said.
In a 2009 article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Bond defended earmarks.
“Trusting local leaders and empowering them to fund critical projects that serve a compelling state or local need is a much better way to help Missouri,” Bond wrote.
Following the news of his death, Gov. Mike Kehoe paid tribute to Bond. In a statement, Kehoe called Bond “a skilled statesman, public servant, and a man who truly loved Missouri. I am blessed to have known Kit and honored to call him a friend and a mentor.”
During the legislative session Tuesday, state Sen. Lincoln Hough, a Springfield Republican, announced Bond had died and also paid tribute to him.
“The impact of Kit will outlive everyone in this chamber, everyone who serves in the House of Representatives, and his impact will outlive governors,” Hough said. “We don’t have a lot of people like that anymore. We have a lot of people that want a quick hit and post on social media. It is lucky to have lived in a time that he didn’t have to put up with a lot of that crap.”
Other remembrances of Bond hit similar themes.
Former U.S. Sen. Jack Danforth, who was attorney general during Bond’s first term as governor and worked alongside him in the U.S. Senate from 1987 to 1995, called Bond a role model of a public servant.
“Kit Bond was one of the most consequential people in the history of our state,” Danforth said. “At each level of his career, he knew the responsibilities of the job he was elected to do, and he did that job very well. As a U.S. Senator, he focused on results for Missouri. From highways and bridges to Parents as Teachers, his contributions are tangible.”
U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Republican who now holds the seat Bond held, said he was sad to hear of his death.
“Kit proudly served our state as governor and then in the U.S. Senate for 24 years, with his trademark sense of humor and dedication to making Missouri the best state in our union,” Schmitt said. “He helped to improve the lives of generations of Missourians across the Show Me State.”
State Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin, a Republican from Shelbina, said in a statement that Bond never lost touch with his Missouri roots.
“Missouri lost a giant today,” O’Laughlin said. “Kit Bond dedicated his life to serving this state with integrity, humility, and an unshakable commitment to doing what was right. Kit Bond was more than a statesman. He was a pillar of Missouri history and a steady hand during uncertain times. From serving as one of our youngest governors to decades in the U.S. Senate, his life was defined by a deep commitment to public service.”
One of the most difficult political puzzles of Bond’s second term as governor was how to divvy up the $600 million in bonds for state construction. Former state Rep. Chris Kelly, a Columbia Democrat elected in 1982, said Bond finessed that job well.
Bond kept his eye on the goal of the bond issue, which was to generate jobs and economic growth, Kelly said.
“He got lots of people to work in the state, building infrastructure that we needed very badly,” Kelly said.
Kelly, who was in office from 1983 to 1994 and served again from 2009 to 2015, said the current legislature isn’t living up to that legacy. The decision to kill a capital spending bill with more than $500 million of projects for communities around the state is an example, Kelly said.
“His great achievement was this $600 million bond issue,” Kelly said, “and it’s tragically ironic that the legislature would fail to do what he did so well on the occasion of his passing.”