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PUBLISHED JANUARY 2025
Against All Odds
In any given year, nearly 600,000 U.S. businesses fail; on average, 17,000 of them won’t just close their doors, they’re forced into formal bankruptcy.
But averages can obscure real-time conditions. If you take a look at five-year increments, as we do with our annual Milestones feature, we’re looking at the first iteration that is pandemic-inclusive: Years 2020 through 2024.
There’s never been a business environment quite like it. And size didn’t matter. While most businesses that went under over that span were small—they are the vast majority of enterprises in the U.S., after all—titans like Bed, Bath & Beyond, Yellow Freight, General Electric, Tuesday Morning and Pier 1 Imports all went down. Mergers claimed some giants, such as Sprint Corp., Cerner and Kansas City Southern Railroad locally.
It takes something, then, to endure. This year, our Milestones feature welcomes to the club nearly 50 companies that have done the statistically improbable: Surviving for at least 50 years.
The odds against that? Well, one in five new companies is gone within the first year. Half won’t make it to five years, let alone 50. And fully 70 percent have come and gone within a decade.
Mind you: 50 years is the floor for inclusion; this year, our list of honorees includes nearly 80 that have made it at least a full century. What did it take to do that? Tenacity is part of it. Another: Family considerations—successive generations committed to the cause of building on what Mom and Dad, the grandparents or long-gone ancestors left in their wake. Good luck plays a hand. Bankers willing to work with them through hard times are a factor. They’ve endured through boom and bust, depression and expansion, changes in White House occupants, uncountable new regulations that complicate the task, technological evolution and changing consumer tastes. They’re still here. They are, indeed, worth recognizing as they celebrate these milestone anniversaries in 2025.
160 years (founded 1865)
Commerce Bank
Its history is intertwined with those of legacy Kansas City families with names like Long, Woods and Kemper, and it literally helped build a city from the ground up: What we know today as Commerce Bank was lending money four years before the first bridge spanned the Missouri River to set the stage for explosive local growth and national expansion. Commerce has endured as the Kansas City region emerged as one of the nation’s most competitive banking markets. In that financial free-for-all, its $18.2 billion in client deposits account for 7.21 percent of the market share in a region where only one other bank exceeds the 10 percent mark. Commerce attributes its long-term success and growth to prudent lending practices, innovation to meet changing consumer needs, and the ability to expand into new vistas, now with retail operations on each side of the state line here, as well as Illinois, Colorado and Oklahoma, plus commercial banking offices in Texas, Iowa, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.
155 years (founded 1870)
Rau Construction Co.
Spanning six generations of a family’s history, Rau Construction celebrates a pair of milestones this year: 155 years since its founding in Solingen, Germany, and 120 since relocating to the Kansas City area. Gen5 brothers Gus and Dan Rau Meyer say the company’s endurance is grounded in superior service, a solid reputation and a finely honed pricing model. Recent years have seen a corporate relocation from Overland Park into Kansas City’s West Bottoms, a district frothing with redevelopment and an area that the Meyers see as fertile ground for their services. Flexibility is another key— the firm builds churches and schools, offices and retail settings, health-care facilities, multifamily residential units and industrial projects, along with interior finishing services and historic renovations.
150 years (founded 1875)
Park University
From a narrow perspective at the foot of its administration building overlooking the Missouri River in Parkville, Park University has the air of a traditional American liberal arts college in a bucolic small-town setting. Don’t be fooled: There’s much more going on under the surface. The private college’s nationwide system of satellite campus centers—more than 20 of them in 16 states—has drawn in some 6,000 students, both undergrad and graduate, and many of them are active-duty service members working toward degree completion. Ranked among the top 10 colleges in Missouri by various rating services, Park is especially well-known for its business curriculum, a program that has credentialed many regional business executives and leaders.
145 years (founded 1880)
Clarkson Construction
The hard work of building out a city starts with its infrastructure, and in that space, Clarkson Construction has been part of the Kansas City story for six generations. It had a major hand in the construction of the single-terminal Kansas City International Airport, which opened in February 2023, and just last month, it secured a piece of the general contracting work for the $217 million plan to transform Downtown’s South Loop into a park covering Interstate 670. The ability to reel in marlins that big has been a defining trait for the family enterprise since George G. Clarkson was relying on horse power—the real thing—along with mules and strong-backed humans to do the heavy lifting that produced the roads, bridges and highway interchanges Kansas City relies on today.
140 years (founded 1885)
Kansas City Art Institute
Walt Disney attended as a child, John Steuart Curry spent a year as a student and Thomas Hart Benton did time as an instructor at Kansas City Art Institute, which has roots going back to the late 19th-century formation of the Sketch Club by art patrons interested in discussing and judging paintings. Since then, it has morphed into a private, four-year art and design college with perhaps the most relevant neighbors one can find in an American arts college: It’s flanked by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on its east edge and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art to the west. It accommodates close to 750 students studying across a palette of 13 arts majors, including history and creative writing. Earning admission there isn’t a slam dunk; more than 40 percent of applicants fail to make the cut.
125 years (founded 1900)
Strauss Peyton
Billing itself as the oldest portrait studio in the nation, Strauss Peyton is an Overland Park photography studio that has long distinguished itself with high-quality keepsake images of celebrities, families, newlyweds, and more. The roots run back to the turn of the 20th century, when Benjamin Strauss made his way here from St. Louis to open Strauss Studio, teaming up with protégé Home Peyton in 1908. From Charlie Chaplin to Franklin D. Roosevelt, notable figures of the early 20th century were the subject of the studio’s work, which continues today both in the Kansas City area and with a St. Louis location.
Tobler’s Flowers
Nobody alive today has ever shopped at Bunker Hill Greenhouses, but if you’re a patron of Tobler’s Flowers, you’re part of a customer legacy that runs all the way back to that founding brand. In those early days, Jacob and Etta Tobler made the deliveries by horse-drawn cart. The company produced three generations of Tobler family ownership before its 2010 sale to Brian and Chris Auckland, who operate the shop near the 18th and Vine district east of Downtown. More than just sellers of flowers, they have kept the business aligned with changing customer lifestyles through online blogging, floral care advice, a reminder service (who doesn’t need that?), rewards points and other features.
120 years (founded 1905)
I. Donnelly Co.
Serving those on both sides of the altar—the shepherds and their flocks—I. Donnelly has a unique business model: Selling church furnishings, vessels and vestments for houses of worship at the institutional level, as well as tangible articles of personal faith that include rosaries, crucifixes, statues, candles, Bibles and more. Peter Ireland Donnelly (his nickname was Ira, hence the I. in I. Donnelly) founded the company, which changed ownership after employee Francis Becker acquired the operation in 1940. The leadership is now three generations deep, with Gen4—Becker’s great-grandchildren—occasionally summoned to the business during their school years.
Michael’s Clothing
There is nothing off-the-rack about Michael’s, the Downtown men’s clothier you can’t miss if you traverse Main Street or ride Kansas City’s streetcar. Under the leadership of third-generation owner Michael Novorr, Michael’s has carved its niche in sartorial circles with a weave of personalized service, custom fit and quality clothing. Try finding that combination at a modern mall or lifestyle center. A distinguishing trait is the ability to outfit customers sizes 36 to 60 with suits, sports coats, formal wear, shirts—even hats. Remember those? As one might expect, accessories and alterations are also part of the service line.
Westlake Ace Hardware
One thing for certain about Westlake Ace Hardware: It’s not the same company today it was even five years ago—and probably won’t be in 2030, either, when its 125th anniversary rolls around. The reason? CEO Joe Jeffries keeps expanding the hardware retailer’s reach, with a constant stream of new store growth and acquisitions that have propelled it up the ranks of the region’s biggest private companies (annual revenues of more than $613 million). A subsidiary of Ace Retail Holdings, it has been part of the Ace Hardware Cooperative since 1959 and currently operates more than 170 stores in 13 states, from California and Washington all the way to North Carolina. Ace Retail Holdings, also headquartered in the Kansas City metro and headed by Jeffries, owns and operates more than 250 Ace Hardware stores nationwide under multiple brands.
115 years (founded 1910)
Hallmark
Transformed from the greeting cards popular in early 20th century America into a global power in all manner of personal expressions, Hallmark has been the bedrock for this region’s rise as a mecca of the creative class. Uncountable thousands of artists, designers, printers, writers, photographers and more have come through the ranks, all as the company has expanded its reach into video and digital markets. Bolstered by ventures like the Hallmark Channel and acquisitions like crayon-maker Crayola, the company remains relevant to the masses, generating roughly $3.5 billion in revenues every year and employing more than 20,000 people around the world.
Tivol
Gift-giving must have been a heck of a thing here in 1910; not only did Hallmark debut but so did Tivol, which also got its start from a young dreamer. In this case, immigrant Charles Tivol, just 20, when he started a company that is now in its fourth generation of leadership under CEO Hunter Tivol McGrath, who took the reins from his mother, Cathy, in 2023. The jeweler operates out of its flagship store on the Country Club Plaza, with an additional location in Overland Park’s Hawthorne Plaza, selling new and used Rolex watches and other timepieces, rings, necklaces and bracelets, and other accessories for women and men.
110 years (founded 1915)
Helzberg Diamonds
With 215 stores in 36 states, the name Helzberg has long been associated with fine jewelry. That presence, which became part of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire-Hathaway corporate empire in 1995 after three generations of ownership, is a long way from the single store opened by Morris Helzberg before World War I. He’d go on to stake the Helzberg claim as purveyors of fine diamonds by developing the Certified Perfect Diamonds program while his successors worked to expand the product line and geographic footprint. That includes half a dozen stores and an outlet in the Kansas City area, as well as the home for the Helzberg Foundation, one of the region’s biggest philanthropic entities.
105 years (founded 1920)
Straub Construction
More than a century ago, Ernest Straub started a construction company, and he wasn’t too particular about project type: if it needed to be built, his fledgling enterprise would tackle it, from churches and schools to high-end homes that still define the character of Johnson County’s exclusive Mission Hills today. That diversity of expertise has helped Straub Construction withstand the hair-raising roller coaster ride in one of the nation’s most cyclical business sectors. And the service line has only expanded over the decades for this company, now based in Shawnee and offering pre-construction services, general contracting and construction management, design/build expertise, and most recently, sustainable construction added to the mix. The company says its mission is a simple one: “We build spaces for communities to work, learn, pray and live.”
100 years (founded 1925)
Hanna Rubber Co.
Finding their bearings after service in World War I, brothers J.C. and R.J. Hanna foresaw an opportunity with industrial America’s growing appetite for products made from rubber. They pooled their resources to start Hanna Rubber, with R.J. drawing up invoices and J.C. jumping on the streetcar to make personal deliveries. Today, it provides a wide range of rubber and plastic products to manufacturers in every state and some abroad. Since 2012, it’s been owned by Singer Industrial and remains focused on output that supports construction, automotive and other manufacturing enterprises, along with items for military use.
United Country Real Estate
Distress in the farming sector has been part of the American story almost since the nation’s founding, and even before the Great Depression in the Roaring Twenties—the original Roaring Twenties a century ago—banks were foreclosing at brisk pace. Roscoe Chamberlain took note, opened his first realty operation in 1925, and barely a year later, had 42 locations managing nearly 250 sales. Fast-forward 100 years under the leadership of Dan Duffy, and United Country is still a fast-growth powerhouse in the rural lifestyle space, dealing with farm and ranch sales, country homes on large plots, recreational and mountain properties, and more. It’s an industry leader with nearly 500 locations and more than 4,000 agents nationwide.
85 years (founded 1940)
Van Osdol
A young lawyer from Parson, Kan., with big-city ambition started his law career in Kansas City a century ago. Frank Terrell would go on to found his own firm in 1940, setting the stage for a series of nameplate changes. One of Terrell’s first hires after World War II was Paul Van Osdol, namesake for the law firm’s brand today. The firm established a reputation early as the go-to resource for family-owned businesses seeking legal guidance—a niche where it retains that status—as it has expanded its service line to estate planning, non-profit operations, tax law, and even criminal defense services.
80 years (founded 1945)
Fike Corp.
This Blue Springs company with a global reach is in a unique business niche, selling products that many customers hope they never have to use. We’re talking fire suppression and explosion-prevention systems for large and small-scale manufacturing concerns. For the team of more than 1,000 around the world, the company says, the level of responsibility is “awesome.” “What we do matters,” the company says. “The products we manufacture and the services we provide make a real difference in the world and in the individual lives of whom we serve.”
75 years (founded 1950)
Carter Broadcast Group
It’s a distinction no other company can claim: Kansas City’s Carter Broadcast Group today is the oldest black-owned and family-operated radio broadcast company in the United States. The inspiration for Carter Broadcasting Group (CBG) predates its incorporation by nearly 20 years: Andrew Robinson Carter was just 14 when he built his first radio back in 1933, fostering dreams of owning his own station. He studied electronics after high school, earned a broadcast license from the Federal Communications Commission in 1947, and with the help of former presidential candidate Alf Landon, he launched KPRS, the nation’s first black radio station west of the Mississippi River. Today, Robinson’s grandson, Michael Carter, leads Carter Media and its award-winning AM and FM stations, KPRS, KPRT and RNB.
Gunter Pest & Lawn
How strong is the family dynamic at this Waldo-based company? Strong enough to have called Norman Besheer away from a 16-year law practice back in 1971 to work with his father-in-law, who had founded the enterprise. Almost up to his passing last month at the age of 96, Norman was still driving to the office, long after the leadership had been handed down to his son, Jay, and then to fourth-generation Noah, the current president. The company helps residential and commercial property owners defend against pests that arrive uninvited by land or by air, including rodents, spiders, ants, bed bugs, termites and mosquitoes.
Karbank Real Estate Company
His big “break” came at age 26, with an unpaid job at a real estate company in Kansas City. That’s how Barney Karbank learned the business until his first home sales yielded a combined $800—equivalent to about $13,900 today. That was enough to get him going, and four years later, he founded his own firm. In the decades that followed, Karbank Real Estate would lease, sell or develop millions of square feet of commercial property in the region. It continues today under son Steven, specializing in brokerage of industrial and office properties that appeal to clients looking for spaces ranging from under 100,000 square feet up to more than 200,000 for industrial and nearly 150,000 in office.
Neal Harris Service Experts
A lot of BTUs have been expended in the service of commercial and residential heating and cooling since Neal Harris opened the doors of his building services company in 1950, growing it into a specialist in HVAC and plumbing maintenance, installation, and repair. He sold the company in 1983, but the brand lived on and continued with only slight modification through additional mergers into Texas-based Service Experts. The Overland Park company specializes in residential and commercial heating, cooling and plumbing, with service lines that include ductwork, water heater installation and water treatment, alternative energy, generator setup and more.
60 years (founded 1965)
Liberty Fruit Co.
It was the humblest of humble starts: A pick-up truck on a Kansas City street corner, where Issie and Mary Caviar made their first produce sales half a century ago. A few years later, son Arnold came on board, and—figuratively speaking here—that sales platform went into high gear. By 1994, Liberty Fruit was operating out of a new, 180,000-square-foot warehouse, with trucks zig-zagging the region’s roads to service grocers and restaurants. Along the way, the Caviars became one of Wyandotte County’s philanthropic anchors. Minnesota-based Russ Davis wholesale acquired the company in late 2022, but third-generation Allen Caviar is still in the leadership as president of a company serving a six-state area.
55 years (founded 1970)
Adams Toyota
Ray Adams opened his first vehicle dealership in Raytown back in 1970, and it wasn’t long before he was leveraging late-night TV ads into a brand-building force for Adams Toyota—you couldn’t miss him if you grew up here in the 1970s and ’80s. More than 150,000 car and truck sales later, the company has relocated to Lee’s Summit, but is still a pillar of new Toyota sales across the metro area, with additional models of used vehicles and a full-service lineup that includes parts, collision repair, vehicle service and financing.
Dickinson Financial Corp.
This bank holding company has the distinction of owning not just a Top 25 bank in the Kansas City market, but two: Academy Bank and Armed Forces Bank. The former is the brand better known regionally, while AFB’s client base is dispersed among the nation’s far-flung service members. Combined, they have nearly $4 billion in assets. The holding company was founded by Gary Dickinson, whose widow, Ann, stepped in after the crash that killed him in 1997 and kept the company on track through some wrenching changes that followed in the financial services sector.
50 years (founded 1975)
Brown & Ruprecht
Punching far above its weight, based on the number of attorneys, the team of nine at Brown & Ruprecht offers a range of legal services one might expect at firms that are considerably larger: cases that include business transactions and litigation, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, labor and employment (including employee benefits/ERISA), estate planning and probate, family law, real estate and taxation. Among the multiple recognitions earned on the firm-wide and individual levels, Best Lawyers awarded them Tier 3 national status for the firm’s work in construction law.
Dry Basement Foundation Repair
Otto Fleck had two things going for him when he founded this Kansas City construction services company in 1975: One, a commitment to providing high-quality work in a sector brimming with fly-by-night players. The second was a target-rich environment: The expansive nature of Midwest soil, often with high clay content, means that dry-spell contraction and wet-weather expansions put inordinate stress on foundations, leading to cracks, shifting and outright failure. In addition to the basic repairs of foundations and crawl spaces, the company, now led by Curtis Bramble as president and general manager, provides waterproofing services, sump pump maintenance, drainage work in the surrounding yard, and more.
McCrite Plaza
Pat and Judy McCrite have made senior living the centerpiece of their lives since long before they became seniors themselves, and their concept of it separates McCrite Plaza’s two area locations from the traditional understanding of elder care. Starting with facilities that look more like high-end suburban apartments, McCrite Plaza’s Briarcliff and Topeka locations allow for independent and assisted living, along with rehabilitation services, memory care and long-term skilled care. One senses the joy that infuses their work in Pat’s video touting the “full-contact football” options for residents. (Hint: it’s a joke.) Generation Two is now on board, with three of the McCrites’ five children operating this compassionate enterprise.
Soli Printing
Redefining the concept of a full-service commercial printing operation, Soli Printing has evolved over the past five decades as a specialist in digital printing, offset printing, large-format printing for billboard-size platforms, along with pre-press and design services, and traditional office printing functions including copying, binding and finishing of envelopes, booklets and other materials in a wide range of finishes. Founded by the late Al Soli and his wife, Rosemary, the company’s leadership passed to a second generation upon their retirement in 2003. Mary Lynn Soli Mikhail leads it as president today along with brother Gregg Soli, who leads operations.
TitanBuilt
With a client list that includes some of the biggest names in regional business—WellSky, Mariner, KBP Brands and AdventHealth, for starters—Lenexa-based TitanBuilt charges into its second half-century with a broad portfolio of completed projects in commercial office buildings, health-care facilities, multifamily residential sites, schools, parking facilities and municipal buildings. Among them are signature projects like Overland Parks’ City Place (office), WaterCrest at City Center (apartments), grocery stores and entertainment centers, to name a few. It has built a reputation for work in construction management, preconstruction and general contracting, design/build, site development and tenant services, among other operations.
