Supporters Like You
Kent and Judy Whittaker
The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law received the largest philanthropic gift in its history, an endowed estate gift of $3.5 million. The Whittaker family, including an alumnus who became a U.S. Supreme Court justice, has been part of the UMKC School of Law’s story for more than 100 years. Their gift will impact the school for generations to come.
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The gift from Kent Whittaker, a Kansas City lawyer for 45 years, will support student scholarships, law school building maintenance, and areas of greatest need. Impressed by recent UMKC School of Law accolades, including the school being named among U.S. News & World Report’s top 100 law schools and accomplishments such as students placing high in competitions, he wants to see the school continue to elevate its reputation as a national law school and hopes to inspire others to make their own estate gifts.
Learn more about estate gifts and other ways to support the law school.
“Kent and Judy Whittaker truly set the standard for excellence as lawyers and leaders in the greater Kansas City community,” said Lumen Mulligan, dean of the UMKC School of Law. “It is exceptionally fitting, then, that their gift sets the standard for philanthropy here at UMKC Law. Their generosity will empower UMKC Law’s success in perpetuity.”
Law school and his career as an attorney shaped Whittaker’s life. He felt he owed a debt to the profession that made him who he is today.
“I was not motivated in college. I was kind of floating through it and having fun,” Whittaker said. “When you graduate from law school, and all of a sudden have someone sitting across the table who hires you to help them with a problem, it makes a world of difference to me. I was responsible for something. I was serious about it, and it made my life. I was not a workaholic, but it made my life.”
Whittaker is not an alumnus of UMKC School of Law himself, but his family ties are strong. His father, Charles Whittaker, graduated from the Kansas City School of Law – now the UMKC School of Law – in 1924. Charles Whittaker was a U.S. Supreme Court Justice and served on the Court from 1957 to 1962. He was nominated by President Eisenhower after serving at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. After his time on the Supreme Court, he returned to the casework he loved and became a counselor and corporate arbitrator for General Motors Corporation. Kent Whittaker’s late wife, Judy Whittaker (J.D. ‘63), is an alumna and was valedictorian of her class. Kate Whittaker (J.D. ‘95), Kent and Judy’s daughter, is also an alumna of the school.
Growing up with a lawyer and then a judge for a father made going into law an easy choice for Kent. He remembers often talking through cases with his father, as Charles loved his work and “was consumed by cases.”
“I always knew I was going to be a lawyer; I just didn’t even consider anything else,” Kent said. “I had a lot of fun practicing law.”
Charles was appointed to the Supreme Court the same month Kent graduated from law school at the University of Michigan. It was there that Kent met his future wife, Judy, as a third-year law student helping with first-year orientation. After Kent graduated from law school, he and Judy moved to his hometown of Kansas City. Kent began a long career in private practice in Kansas City, including more than 40 years with Hillix Brewer and its successors.
Judy finished law school at UMKC School of Law. During law school, Judy had two children and still graduated as valedictorian. She spent several years at a small firm, Sheffrey, Ryder & Skeer, before being asked to join the growing legal team at Hallmark. Judy spent 30 years at Hallmark, where she worked on many projects that helped shape the company into what it is today, including leasing at the newly built Crown Center, the acquisition of Crayola, the purchase of the Spanish International Network (now Univision) television station, numerous patents, and more.
“Judy loved her career at Hallmark; I can’t remember a time she was unhappy there,” Kent said. “We were both fantastically lucky in our jobs and loved our time working.”
Their successful careers led to an early decision to pay it forward.
“We decided halfway through our working years that if we were able, we wanted to dedicate part of our estate to making a difference in the community,” Kent said. “We want to help reduce human suffering and support education, and that’s what we’re doing with this gift.”
Annette Luyben
A lifelong lover of music and daughter of the founder of the iconic Luyben Music Store in Kansas City, Annette has continued her family’s legacy of supporting musicians through her gifts to the UMKC Conservatory. From establishing endowed scholarships to contributing materials to the LaBudde Special Collections, she has dedicated herself to fueling the music community in Kansas City. Her philanthropy is a tribute to her late friends and their impact on the music world.
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Anette Luyben, who grew up working in her family’s eponymous music store on Main Street in Kansas City, has lived her life surrounded by music and musicians. While the shop has moved online and narrowed its services, she continues to fuel the music community in Kansas City through gifts to the UMKC Conservatory.
In the past two years, she has established four endowed scholarships for Conservatory students and contributed materials to the LaBudde Special Collections.
“My father opened the business in 1948,” Luyben said of the music shop.
While the first location of the store was farther south on 63rd Street, most people are familiar with the trim brick building on Main Street with the red door and red and white striped awning, with “Luyben” in distinct, linear black lettering.
“I was there from the time I was 5 years old. Later, when I went to Westport High School, I would walk over to the store to work after school. During college, I worked there during the summers.”
Luyben’s sold sheet music, musical instruments, and supplies, and also provided lessons for students. She remembers her parents hiring their first Conservatory student to work in the shop in 1955.
“They hired Don Shoberg, a student who had come in to buy a reed,” she says. “My mom liked him and asked if he wanted a job. He worked for us for 63 years.”
Shoberg (B.M. ’58; M.M. ’64, music composition) was the first of more than 200 students of the UMKC Conservatory who would come to work with the Luybens.
“It has been a strong bond,” she says.
Despite her respect for the business and the delight of the many friendships she made there, she did not start to make music her life’s work.
“I have a degree in American history and economics, and I taught high school for 15 years,” said Luyben.
Luyben quit teaching and went to work in the shop when her father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
“I knew if the business was going to continue, that my mother was going to need more help,” she says. “It was totally my choice. I was proud to be Bob Luyben’s daughter.”
The Luybens’ connection with the Conservatory included relationships with customers who had first come to the shop as children. American operatic tenor Vinson Cole (B.M. ’72) would visit the shop as a child, Luyben recalls. As a high schooler, Grammy award-winning opera singer Joyce Di Donato was another regular visitor at the Luybens’ shop.
“We were blessed to have so many wonderful customers. I used to say, There should be a sign above the door that says, ‘The nicest people in the world walk through these doors.’”
That goodwill did not stop with the relationships that the Luyben family had with the students through employment and commerce. Annette Luyben is an enthusiastic and dedicated supporter of UMKC students and programs. She donated significant documentation from the shop archives to the UMKC LaBudde Special Collections this year. But her focus —and joy — is in supporting scholarships for students.
“When my mother passed away, we asked that people support a scholarship at the Conservatory in her name in lieu of flowers.”
When Robert Luyben died in 1993, she added his name to the scholarship and shifted the requirement to support students studying clarinet. But her generosity did not end there. She has established three named scholarships in the last two years.
Shoberg, who worked at the shop for many years, died in May 2021. He remembered Annette Luyben in his estate, and her first thought was to use the money to honor Shoberg with an endowed scholarship in his name.
“Don was very active at UMKC. He was on the UMKC Alumni Association Governing Board and was very active with the Conservatory Alumni and Friends Governing Board. A scholarship seemed like the best way to honor him.”
When Luyben’s close friend Richard Williams died six months later, she thought contributing to the scholarship in his name would be a fitting tribute to Williams’ dedication to the Conservatory for his work as assistant professor of piano and voice.
“When I called Mark Mattison and told him that I wanted to contribute to Richard’s scholarship, he let me know that there wasn’t a scholarship in Richard’s name,” said Luyben.
With some of the money remaining from Shoberg’s estate, Luyben committed to establishing the Richard L. Williams Memorial Scholarship, which is available to students studying percussion.
“Richard was in our store all the time. He’d been with the Conservatory for 40 years and was close friends with Don. The day I talked to Mark, I went out to get the mail, and there was another check from the settlement of Don’s estate. It was enough to endow the scholarship.”
Rather than seeing herself as the significant philanthropist she is, Luyben credits her late friends.
“I’m the messenger,” she says. “It’s Don and Richard up there doing this. I’m happy there are scholarships in place that other people can give to.”
Her most recent gift is an endowment for the Karen Richie Greer Memorial Scholarship in Percussion in honor of Karen Ricci Greer (B.M.E., ’63). Greer, a Kansas City native and gifted percussionist, was a part-time member of the Kansas City Philharmonic at the age of 15. By the time she was 20 years old, she had joined the philharmonic full-time.
Greer and Luyben became close friends in their adulthood and attended many Conservatory events together. After Greer’s death, Luyben attended a performance by percussionist Isaiah Petrie.
“He blew my mind,” she remembers. “The following week, I reached out to Walter Greer and said, ‘I saw this musician play and he’s remarkable. It made me think of Karen. Do you want to establish a scholarship with me in her name?’ And he did.”
Luyben waves away the idea that she could be spending this money on herself.
“These people deserve to be remembered,” she says. “It’s important. Don was incredible. Richard Williams and Karen committed so much. They deserve to be remembered in some other way than on a tombstone.”
Roy Smith (B.A. ’85)
UMKC alumnus Roy’s gift of $2.5 million will support generations of students in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. His generous scholarship for First Gen Roo students from the Kansas City area reflects his altruistic spirit and desire to help others, inspired by his own experience at UMKC. This gift goes beyond financial aid, creating a sense of community and support for students. Smith’s story is a reminder of the impact of giving back and the importance of accessible education for future generations.
Read more of his story
Roy Smith (B.A. ’85) did not have a lot of academic direction before coming to UMKC. He grew up in Kansas City and thought he might want to be a photographer. After a stop at a nearby art school where he’d been accepted, he walked across the street to UMKC.
“It was open enrollment,” he says. “I was sort of stumbling around, and someone helped me get registered and found me a job as a work study.”
Smith did not have family members to advise him on school, so in the beginning, he was largely on his own.
“I knew I didn’t want to be an engineer or a doctor, but I thought I’d go to law school.”
With this direction in mind, he settled on a degree in administration of justice.
“I worked more than 30 hours a week in addition to going to school,” he says. “And I received a scholarship based on financial need. I was very satisfied knowing my future was going to be secure.”
Smith, who decided not to pursue law school, had a successful insurance career and lived in 23 different cities, though he has always maintained ties with Kansas City and UMKC; he retired in 2018. When his daughter died five years ago, Smith decided to endow a scholarship that would help make college a possibility for generations of students in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS).
“I wanted to support a good cause, and I like the idea of helping students secure their future success.”
Smith established the Roy E. Smith Scholarship and committed $2.5 million to the fund through a bequest expectancy pledge. To be eligible, students must graduate from a public high school in the Kansas City metropolitan area and maintain a 2.0 grade point average. Smith says he created the scholarship because he has always had an altruistic spirit.
“There’s a lot of satisfaction in knowing that the value of what you’ve accumulated will help other people.”
Tamara Falicov, Ph.D., dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, recognizes the impact of Smith’s gift.
“In the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, we are committed to supporting students like Roy Smith who may not have family members who can advise them about college,” Falicov says. “We are proud to support our First Gen Roo students in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences to enable them to lead successful lives as Mr. Smith has. His generous gift will change the future of generations of UMKC students in SHSS.”
Harold Gersh (M.A. ’55)
Harold, a dedicated high school counselor for 28 years and UMKC alumnus, used frugality to establish an endowment fund for scholarships in secondary education. His legacy continues to shape young lives with scholarship support, inspiring future recipients to also give back and make a difference. With just one gift, Harold changed the course of future generations. Watch more of his story in this video.
Jeannie Cheatham Leaves A Legacy at UMKC
Kansas City blues legend Jeannie Cheatham, known for her song “Meet Me with Your Black Drawers On,” has gifted her music royalties and copyrights to the Marr Sound Archives at UMKC. A pioneering musician, Jeannie overcame racial barriers in her career and, alongside her husband, Jimmy Cheatham, dedicated her life to jazz and blues. Her donation includes original music manuscripts and her autobiography, ensuring that her contributions to the blues tradition are preserved for future generations. The Marr Sound Archives will maintain and make her work accessible to musicians, researchers, and students, continuing Kansas City’s rich musical legacy.
Read more of her story
Kansas City blues great Jeannie Cheatham has already left a legacy through her music career. But at 90 years old, Cheatham continues to contribute to the blues tradition through the gift of her music royalties and copyrights to the Marr Sound Archive at the University of Missouri–Kansas City.
Cheatham wrote the iconic blues song “Meet Me with Your Black Drawers On” and the autobiography of the same title. She’s played with jazz and blues greats, including Cab Calloway, T-Bone Walker, Joe Williams, and Dinah Washington, but her connection to music started before she was six years old, when she began playing piano by ear.
“I started playing in church,” Cheatham says. “I couldn’t reach the pedals, so I’d push down the keys and hold. It really strengthened my hands.”
While she did eventually take lessons, strength and endurance were as innate as her musical gift. Denied an art scholarship to college that she had won because she is African-American, Cheatham chose a music career.
“I was playing in my own band, mostly in Canada. But they had strict laws about playing after midnight, so we’d drive down to Buffalo to play in the all-night jam sessions. One night, the president of the Elks Club asked if I’d play to help him out. I told him, ‘I don’t want to play with all those old men.’ Well, they were all old men. Except for Jimmy.”
Jimmy Cheatham had just returned from working in Hollywood, and the rest of the band was buzzing about working with him. Jeannie was intrigued, but it was not until they saw one another again two years later that they became a couple.
“The next time I saw him, he was playing at a supper club. We ran through his arrangement and just kept going. We just never left,” she says.
The Cheathams were married for 48 years until Jimmy’s death in 2007. The couple dedicated their lives to music through playing together in the Sweet Baby Blues band and Jimmy’s teaching career at the University of California – San Diego.
“We played Kansas City style,” says Cheatham of why she decided to leave an estate gift of the music royalties and the copyrights of her music to the Marr Sound Archives at UMKC. “Kansas City is where jazz and blues got married. It’s the bridge where everybody crossed over. Kansas City style is what gets everybody dancing. The archives have a vision of what the language of music is all about.”
Chuck Haddix, director of the Marr Archive, notes that Cheatham’s gift is incredibly valuable.
“Jeannie has a real connection to Kansas City. Her music was influenced by (Blues Hall of Fame musician) Jay McShann, blues, and boogie woogie. When Jeannie launched her career, it was rare for women to be working as instrumentalists in bands,” says Haddix.
The gift is significant, too, as it includes the manuscripts of both Cheatham’s music and her book. “Her music bridges blues and jazz, and we have the arrangements of the original scores. The band improvised when they played, of course, but having the original arrangements means the music can be recreated.” He notes that part of the value of the archives is the availability for musicians to research and perform the arrangements held there.
Haddix says that the archives have had a long relationship with Cheatham. “As with many donors, Jeannie contacted us because we have an international reputation for taking care of our collections. We don’t accept them lightly. When we take on collections, we make a commitment to preserving them in perpetuity.”
Beyond music students and enthusiasts, Haddix sees a value to a broader community. “These collections are relevant to students of culture and gender studies. Jeannie did it her own way and succeeded where a lot of women did not. She was the brains behind the operation.”
Jeannie Cheatham received a United States Congressional Recognition as “Queen of the Kansas City Blues” in 2012. “No one expects something like that,” says Cheatham. “You just do your best to stay on the bandstand and not throw up on your shoes. It’s a good life if you don’t weaken.”
Planned Gifts Spur Success for Generations of UMKC Students
Faculty member Dr. Linda E. Mitchell established an endowment for the Gay and Lesbian Archives of Mid-America (GLAMA) to support LGBTQ+ history preservation. Alumnus Todd Newton, inspired by his mother, created a scholarship for political science students to ease the burden of student loans. Chancellor Mauli Agrawal and his wife, Sue, endowed the Dr. Raj Bala Agrawal Care Center to address student food insecurity and expand the Roo Pantry. These planned gifts reflect a deep commitment to student success and the broader UMKC community.
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Estate planning expands legacy, opportunity
The UMKC Foundation benefits from donors who take the long view of charitable giving.
Creating an endowed gift is an opportunity to establish a personal legacy that will support research, expand students’ opportunities, ensure that UMKC has resources to support students’ educational needs, as well as provide resources that go beyond tuition and books.
Faculty member Linda E. Mitchell, Ph.D., professor emerita of history, included UMKC in her estate planning. Mitchell, the former Martha Jane Phillips Starr Missouri Distinguished Endowed Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at UMKC, set up an endowment fund for the Gay and Lesbian Archives of Mid-America (GLAMA).
Mitchell’s academic career has focused on women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. Because of her mentoring of students in these areas, she was familiar with GLAMA’s mission to collect, preserve, and make accessible materials that are part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities’ history in the Kansas City region. This awareness encouraged her planned gift.
“I feel that I have an obligation to make our world better. My choice, in addition to being an educator myself, is to do what I can to provide financial support for the education of people who all too frequently experience barricades that prevent them from achieving the education they desire and deserve.”
Todd Newton, BA ’88, was inspired by his mother, a college professor who helped him as much as she could but could not cover the expense of his college education. Newton’s understanding of the pressure that student loans can bring led him to establish a scholarship for political science students through a planned gift.
Chancellor Mauli Agrawal and his wife, Sue, endowed the Dr. Raj Bala Agrawal Care Center with a donation in memory of his mother, in response to a report that found nearly a third of UMKC undergraduate students experienced food insecurity. The expanded services provide more and fresher choices for students in need. In addition, the Roo Pantry will move from Troost Avenue to the Care Center on the first floor of the Student Union to better serve students and enable faculty and staff to more easily guide them there.
“We feel deeply that our students should not suffer due to a lack of food and other basic needs,” Chancellor Agrawal said. “Our goal at UMKC is to help students stay enrolled and – ultimately — graduate.”
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