Missouri said goodbye Tuesday to Kit Bond, the Republican former governor, U.S. Senator and auditor who spent 34 of his 86 years in public office.
During a memorial service in the Missouri Capitol Building’s rotunda, Bond was eulogized by John Ashcroft, the Republican who succeeded him in office as governor, and U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat who said the two formed a lifelong friendship during Bond’s first term as governor from 1973 to 1977.
“Talk is cheap, but doing takes the devotion of one’s lifetime,” Ashcroft said. “Bond was a doer.”
Cleaver said he first met Bond as a civil rights leader, and the friendship was cemented during his time as mayor of Kansas City and when he was elected to Congress in 2004.
On Cleaver’s arrival in Washington, Bond, starting his fourth term in the Senate, held a reception for the freshman Democrat. They worked together to restore the Liberty Memorial, obtain funds for a new courthouse and find money for bridge and road projects, Cleaver said.
“I will be delighted for the rest of my life to have worked with Kit Bond,” Cleaver said.
The hour-long ceremony also featured prayers from former U.S. Sen. Jack Danforth, an Episcopal priest who, along with Bond and Ashcroft, were the young Republican leaders who broke a Democratic monopoly on state offices in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bond’s casket will remain in the rotunda until 1 p.m. Wednesday, when he will be taken to St. Louis for a family memorial service and private interment.
Bond died May 13 and was survived by his wife of 22 years, Linda Holwick Bond, and his son, Samuel.
Bond grew up 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.
Bond lost a bid for Congress in 1968 before winning the race for state auditor in 1970. When he was elected governor in 1972 at the age of 33, he was — and remains — the youngest person ever to win the state’s highest office.
In 2020, veteran journalist Phill Brooks, who covered both Bond administrations for KMOX and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, wrote that Bond won office in 1972 by campaigning on a platform to restrict special interest influence in government.
“His victory empowered him to lead the successful, bipartisan legislative effort for campaign and lobbyist disclosure requirements, as well as the state’s ‘Sunshine Law’ requiring public access to government meetings and records,” Brooks wrote.
In his first term, Bond also won passage of stronger consumer protection laws and, in 1975, issued an executive order rescinding former Gov. Lilburn Boggs’ 1838 order that Mormons “must be exterminated or driven from the state.”
Bond also reorganized state government, taking it from 96 independent agencies to 14 state departments organized along lines of responsibility such as health, education and corrections.
After losing a bid for re-election, Bond made a political comeback in 1980, winning the governor’s office again. He won his seat in the U.S. Senate in 1986 and was re-elected three times.
The turnout Tuesday, which filled the rotunda for the 45-minute memorial service, included former governors Bob Holden and Mike Parson, former U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, people who had worked with Bond in Jefferson City and Washington, and current officials elected since he left office in 2010.
Warren Erdman, executive vice president-administration and corporate affairs for Kansas City Southern railway, was Bond’s chief of staff in his U.S. Senate office and an aide to Bond in his second term as governor. He said Bond embodied the spirit of the early Pilgrims, who founded a society, described by John Winthrop in 1630, as one of “communal charity, affection and unity.”
“Kit loved and practiced these beliefs throughout his lifetime and in his public service,” Erdmann said. “They were foundational to his approach to public service.”
In his second term as governor, Bond had to deal with state budget shortfalls as the economy weakened. He promoted and won passage of a $600 million construction bond issue to boost employment and renew state facilities.
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.
When his son was born, Bond was introduced to the program for parental guidance of education that became known as Parents as Teachers.
“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’s 1972 victory energized new leaders to go into public service, Ashcroft said in his eulogy.
“Over and over again. Kit launched the careers of young people, talented, committed, dedicated people who later, after appointment, found opportunity beckoning them to achievement levels they had not anticipated,” Ashcroft said.
Danforth, who has parted ways with Republicans over many issues in recent years, said Bond made state government better and enjoyed doing it.
“He elevated the quality of government,” Danforth said. “And besides that, in his day, politics was fun. I don’t think it’s fun anymore.”