Our state has seen some of the greatest political leaders in American history. From Senator Thomas Hart Benton, to Governor David Francis, to Congressman Gephardt, to Governor Lloyd Stark, to the great Senator Roy Blunt. Missouri can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any state in the quality of our greatest leaders.
However, after President Truman, one man stands above all the rest. Christopher S. “Kit” Bond.
You can find a litany of his accomplishments in his many obituaries published around the state, but when I think of Kit Bond I think of more than his resume.
He was a larger than life figure. Missouri ran through his veins. His every word, his every action, literally everything about him exuded a love for Missouri.
Kit Bond left such an indelible mark on this state and our politics that years after he left public office doing the right thing for the state even if it was hard, thinking long term, bringing Missourian’s tax dollars home to invest in Missourian’s communities, to this day, is an extension of the legacy Kit Bond.
He was the man who didn’t preen and peacock about what he was doing, he was the man who produced.
You can have all the Twitter populism you want, but you have to produce or none of it really matters.
Kit Bond produced.
You can be any place in this state from Caruthersville to Rock Port, from Pineville to Kahoka and you cannot drive more than a half hour in any direction without finding a bridge, a yard of water pipe, a runway, a mile of road, a sewage plant, or a facility at a college that Kit Bond didn’t have a role in building.
Kit Bond was more than a Governor or a Senator. His accomplishments were so vast, his impact was so immense that he became more the legacy of the love and dedication to Missouri that lives on more than a single man who no longer does.
That legacy lived on in his successor Roy Blunt. Imagine filling those shoes, imagine being entrusted to maintain and carry forth that legacy.
Senator Blunt did, and today you can see that same legacy continuing on this year when his successor Senator Schmitt brought home the latest fighter wing to Missouri.
Speaking of that legacy of putting Farmington over Fox News, putting Tarkio over Twitter, Innsbrook over Facebook. Kit Bond’s legacy continues on in this state, not by the loudest in the room, or the most obnoxious social media account, but by accomplishing real things for the people of the state of Missouri.
It was fitting that Senators Lincoln Hough and Justin Brown were on the Senate floor fighting for places in Missouri like the hospital in Salem and the crime lab in Poplar Bluff when the news of Kit’s passing broke.
They were on the senate floor continuing his legacy of working on the real things that improve the lives of real Missourians… the Kit Bond type things.
I have my own Kit Bond story. First, Highway 67 would still be a goat trail without Kit Bond and his amazing district representative, Tom Schulte. However, that was the type of thing Kit did so many times all over the state.
On a more personal note it was the fall of the first year after founding The Missouri Times that I was at an event with Senator Bond. We stepped off to the side and shared a drink, told a few jokes, and made a plan to meet later in the month.
Well, later that night I was emptying my jacket pockets and found a personal check from Kit Bond and in the memo he wrote subscription. The check was for far more than a subscription. I was so honored I hesitated to deposit it, but I’ve never forgotten it.
State Auditor, the 47th and 49th Governor of Missouri and United States Senator are all impressive titles, but to me Kit Bond was and now will forever be more than those titles.
His is a legacy that embodies putting Missouri over oneself, and above all, loving Missouri more than anything else.
Kit Bond was the best of us, and to this day inspires so many others carry his legacy forward.
Scott Faughn is the publisher of The Missouri Times, owner of the Clayton Times in Clayton; SEMO Times in Poplar Bluff; and host of the only statewide political television show, This Week in Missouri Politics.
