William H. Dunn, Sr.

He was born to John Ernest “Ernie” Dunn Sr. and Rose Dunn in 1923, a year before his father founded the construction company. With his older brother, Ernie Jr., older sister Mary Ellen, and younger sister, Rosalie, grew up in a strict but loving home.

One of Bill’s best childhood memories was going with his father to a 1934 World Series game in St. Louis where the Cardinals were playing against the Detroit Tigers. Bill was fascinated with Detroit pitcher Elden Auker’s submarine ball. Bill was on the football, basketball and baseball teams at Visitation School and was a 1940 graduate of Rockhurst High School where he played football and baseball. Ernie Sr., who had been a minor league pitcher for the Portland Beavers in his early twenties, helped Bill finesse his pitching game.

Family meant everything to Ernie Sr. and he tried to coax each of his children to work for the construction company. Ernie Jr. joined the company in 1938 as a timekeeper and quickly rose through the ranks to become construction superintendent by 1940. Mary Ellen became its head bookkeeper not long after being hired in 1939. Bill’s initiation into the business wasn’t so auspicious. Bill had just finished his freshman year at Rockhurst College in 1941 when he worked on the construction of Blessed Sacrament School. Laborers made 55 cents an hour. His father had him listed as a water boy which paid a dollar a day even though he was doing laborer’s work. Bill’s younger sister, Rosalie, couldn’t be lured into the family business and became a medical technologist.

World War II began a new chapter for the family and the construction company. Ernie Jr. enlisted in the Navy’s aviation cadet program in 1942 and chose to become a pilot in the Marine Air Corps. He flew a total of 118 bombing missions in the Pacific and received several air medals. The same summer that Ernie Jr. was enlisting in the military, Bill was working 12hour shifts as a laborer on the building of the Quartermaster Depot in Kansas City. Bill transferred to Notre Dame as a junior in their civil engineering program that fall and enlisted in the Naval Reserve program at the school. Ernie Sr. made national headlines when the Quartermaster Depot job wrapped up and he decided to return all profits on the job -- $178,000 – to the federal government to help the war effort. Editorial writers across the country praised Ernie’s generosity and FDR commended him in a written letter. Once Bill finished his junior year at Notre Dame, he left school to become a pilot in the Navy Air Corps.

The Navy sent Bill to several naval bases for basic training before he flew a Vought OS2U-3 Kingfisher as a catapult pilot. He was assigned to the USS Battleship Wisconsin for the “big push” into Japan when the war abruptly ended in August 1945. He was honorably discharged that November.

There was a time before the war when Bill considered becoming a Jesuit priest. Those religious aspirations vanished in 1945 when he attended a Thanksgiving party and started talking to Jean Aylward, a woman he had dated a few times before the war. Bill was smitten right away. She agreed when he asked to wait until he received a college degree before they married. He took 31 hours in one semester at Rockhurst College to earn a double major in math and physics in August 1946. Jean and Bill were married six months later.

Bill impressed professors at Rockhurst who thought he should apply to Midwest Research Institute, a new scientific research center in Kansas City. Ernie Sr. intervened, convincing Bill to work for the family company. “You’ve never seen the business side of the construction business,” his father told Bill. “Do me a favor and just give it a try.”

Bill’s business acumen grew during those postwar years and so did his family. Jean and Bill had three sons within five years of marriage -- Bill Jr., Terry, and Steve –while the work responsibilities piled up. By the early 1950s, Bill’s father had put him in charge of much of the marketing, estimating and project management. More sons came along: Kevin was born in the late 1950s and Bob was born in the early 1960s. Their youngest child and only daughter, Mary, was born later in the 1960s with Down syndrome. Bill loved all his children but Mary was his favorite. He doted on her and she strengthened his commitment to help the less fortunate.

During the postwar era, Ernie Sr., not only showed Bill how to run a construction company, he also taught him the values that were important in business. Ernie Sr. believed that in business, as in life, treat everyone as you want to be treated. “Anyone can build a building. There’s a lot of people doing it” his father once told Bill. “It’s how you do the job and whether the design team and owner want you back again that is going to determine whether you stay in business.” And about the people who work for you, Ernie Sr. had this to say: “Get the best people you can, give them interesting and challenging work, and let them share whatever rewards there are in the company.” Ernie Sr. died in 1964 but his values lived on in Bill who used them and expanded them into principles that still guide the construction company today.

After their father’s death, Ernie Jr. and Bill bought out their mother’s and sisters’ shares in the construction company and by 1974, Bill bought out his brother’s share. The purchase of his brother’s share put the company in debt but a few key jobs, a strong field operation led by World War II vets, and Bill’s own hard work and hustle put the company back in the black after a few years. At the same time, Bill’s three oldest sons – Bill Jr., Terry and Steve – joined the company.

Bill served as CEO of JE Dunn from 1974 until his son Terry took on the role in 1989. He was chairman of the company’s board until 2000. Under Bill’s leadership, JE Dunn became the Kansas City area’s largest contractor. Before Bill managed the company, most projects were hard bid but his emphasis on safety, quality control, and cost savings led clients to seek JE Dunn out for negotiated work. The trust he built with clients, employees and community members is what set JE Dunn apart.

As the company’s volume of work increased, so did Bill’s civic involvement. Throughout his career, he served on more than 100 nonprofit boards. His dedication to service earned him countless awards including Kansas Citian of the Year and Philanthropist of the Year. After stepping down as chairman of JE Dunn, Bill devoted even more time to philanthropy with the help of his son, Bob, on the Dunn Family Foundation.

In a career that spanned 73 years at JE Dunn, Bill retired in January 2020.

He was able to attend the company’s 2024 centennial celebration at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Gordon Lansford, current CEO of JE Dunn, spoke at the event about the CEOs who preceded him. He said if one word were used to describe Bill, that word would be “heart.” Gordon said it best when describing Bill, “His heart was vast, and it touched everyone he encountered. The world is better for his having lived in it. His legacy will endure for generations in the buildings we build, the relationships we nurture, and the communities we serve.”

Bill was preceded in death by his parents; his siblings; his infant twin sons, Mike and Pat; his daughter, Mary; and Jean, his wife of 75 years. Survivors include five sons, Bill Jr. (Marianne); Terry (Peggy); Steve (Anne); Kevin (Bob); and Bob (Amy); 20 grandchildren; and many great-grandchildren.

The family wishes to thank Kansas City Hospice and all the caregivers who made it possible for him to live at home until the end.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday, June 10th at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Prairie Village; visitation from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. that morning at the church where the Rosary will be prayed at 10:30 a.m. Private family graveside services. Services can be viewed livestream at https://stannpv.org/billdunn.

The family suggests contributions to Operation Breakthrough, Rockhurst University, Rockhurst High School, or Bishop Miege High School.