Del Dunmire: The Real Most Interesting Man in the World
From bank robber to millionaire: The eccentric life of Kansas City's Del Dunmire.
Del Dunmire was not your typical entrepreneur. While most wealthy business owners accumulate their fortunes and invest them wisely, Dunmire took a different approach. He made approximately $200 million in his lifetime—and then spent $205 million. His son Mark summed it up perfectly when he said to the Kansas City Star, “He was the embodiment of the American dream.” But Dunmire’s American dream looked dramatically different from most people’s, filled with bank robberies, aviation empires, million-dollar weddings, and attempts to revitalize entire towns. His life reads like a Hollywood screenplay, yet every word is true. This is the story of a man who defined eccentricity, generosity, and unbridled ambition in ways that continue to captivate Kansas City decades later.
The College Years: Majoring in Beer and Social Life
Dunmire’s unconventional path began early. After enrolling at the University of Buffalo, he quickly realized that traditional academics were not his calling. In a 1987 interview with People magazine, Dunmire was remarkably candid about his college experience: “I majored in beer drinking and minored in social life. So I left before they asked me to.” His self-awareness and humor about his inability to focus on studies revealed the personality that would define his entire existence—a man who refused to pretend or conform to societal expectations. Rather than persisting with a degree he had no interest in, Dunmire made the unconventional choice to pursue a different path entirely. This decision would set the tone for a life filled with bold moves and unexpected turns.
From Fighter Pilot to Bank Robber
After leaving college, Dunmire joined the United States Air Force and received training to become a fighter pilot. Military service seemed like a natural fit for someone seeking discipline and adventure. However, even in the structured environment of the Air Force, Dunmire’s gambling habits caught up with him. While serving, he accumulated a substantial $5,000 poker debt—a fortune in the 1950s. Desperate to resolve the debt quickly, Dunmire made a decision that would change his life forever. In 1958, at just 24 years old and holding the rank of Air Force lieutenant, he robbed a bank in Abilene, Kansas. According to reports, he pulled a gun on a cashier at the old Commercial State Bank and made off with several thousand dollars. His criminal enterprise was short-lived; police apprehended him after a brief chase.
This moment could have derailed Dunmire’s life entirely. Many people with a felony conviction and prison time ahead would have resigned themselves to limited opportunities. However, Dunmire’s story took an unexpected turn. After serving just two years in prison—released early for good behavior—he emerged with a different perspective and renewed determination.
The Birth of an Aviation Empire
Upon his release from prison, Dunmire made another unconventional choice. Rather than abandoning his education, he decided to complete it. He enrolled at the University of Kansas and pursued a degree in aeronautical engineering, combining his military background with serious academic study. This time, his focus was genuine, driven by a vision for the future.
Armed with his engineering degree and an understanding of the aerospace industry from his military experience, Dunmire founded Growth Industries Inc., initially operating out of his garage. The company specialized in selling essential aviation parts to major airlines. His timing was impeccable. The aerospace industry was booming, and Dunmire’s products filled a genuine market need. What began in a garage quickly scaled into a major operation with multiple manufacturing plants across Kansas City.
The aviation parts business proved extraordinarily lucrative. Dunmire’s company became a major supplier to airlines like TWA, and his personal wealth accumulated at a pace that even he struggled to comprehend. Unlike many self-made millionaires who become increasingly cautious and conservative with their wealth, Dunmire embraced the opposite philosophy: he was going to spend his fortune in the most interesting, outrageous, and generous ways possible.
Living Life to the Fullest: The Eccentric Spending Years
Random Acts of Extreme Generosity
Dunmire’s wealth created opportunities for spontaneous generosity that became legendary throughout Kansas City business circles. Workers at his manufacturing plants reported that Dunmire would regularly hand out $100 bills to employees—not as bonuses or earned rewards, but as random acts of kindness. This practice kept morale exceptionally high and created a workplace culture unlike any other in the region. The message was clear: Dunmire valued his employees and wanted them to share in his success.
The Million-Dollar Wedding Spectacle
Perhaps Dunmire’s most famous display of eccentric wealth was his wedding to Debbie Lunsford, a former secretary two decades his junior. The engagement party alone set the tone for what was to come—Dunmire inexplicably wore a custom-made clown outfit valued at $5,000. But the engagement was merely the prelude to the main event.
In 1986, Dunmire and Debbie decided to invite all of Kansas City to their wedding. This was not hyperbole—they literally issued an open invitation to the entire city. To accommodate the massive guest list, Dunmire rented over a thousand hotel rooms in nearby hotels and covered the room service bills for all guests. The wedding celebration took place at Barney Allis Plaza and featured an entertainment lineup that included Frankie Avalon, Fabian, and Bobby Rydell. As a wedding gift to his bride, Dunmire purchased an actual carnival merry-go-round.
The total cost exceeded $1 million for a single night of celebration. When Evel Knievel, the legendary daredevil, served as one of the groomsmen, it only added to the spectacle. This wedding perfectly encapsulated Dunmire’s philosophy: money was meant to be spent on experiences, celebrations, and creating memories—not hoarded or invested conservatively.
The Auction House Challenge
Dunmire’s competitive nature extended to his spending habits in unexpected ways. According to friends and associates, if Dunmire learned that someone else wanted something at an auction, he would increase his bids simply to prevent them from getting it. “You never wanted to be at an auction when Del was there ’cause if he found out that you wanted something, he’d just run the bid up,” recalled one of his acquaintances. “That’s the way he was.” This behavior revealed not just Dunmire’s wealth and willingness to spend it, but also his ornery, mischievous personality. He derived pleasure from the game itself, not merely from acquiring objects.
The Harrisonville Dream: Revitalizing a Forgotten Town
A Vision of Westport South Kansas City
While Dunmire’s extravagant personal spending made him a legend, his most ambitious project involved attempting to revitalize an entire town. Harrisonville, Missouri, had seen better days. Its once-vibrant downtown square had deteriorated into a collection of shuttered storefronts and abandoned buildings. By the early 1990s, the downtown had become nearly unrecognizable from its former glory.
Dunmire believed he could transform Harrisonville’s downtown into something spectacular—a thriving entertainment and retail hub similar to the famous Westport district in Kansas City. He envisioned bustling nightlife, upscale restaurants, art galleries, and shops that would draw visitors from across the region. His friends described his vision as “fantastical,” though not in a dismissive way—they understood that Dunmire possessed both the wealth and the determination to potentially achieve it.
Buying the Town, One Property at a Time
To pursue this vision, Dunmire began purchasing properties in downtown Harrisonville. Over several years, he acquired 52 properties—representing approximately 80% of the downtown square. He spent more than $10 million on this real estate acquisition strategy. Remarkably, Dunmire rarely negotiated prices downward; he typically paid asking price or even above it. As one associate noted, “He gave them more money than what their building actually was worth because that’s the way the man was. He was a very giving person, and he had a lot of good ideas for the square.”
This generosity in negotiations reflected Dunmire’s character. He genuinely wanted to help the property owners while simultaneously pursuing his vision. For some business owners like Joni Fashions owner Mabary, Dunmire’s ownership proved beneficial. After years of Dunmire telling her she would eventually get the building “at a really good price,” he made good on his promise, allowing her to purchase the property on favorable terms. Joni Fashions remains one of the few Dunmire-era businesses still operating in the square.
Where the Dream Collided with Reality
Unfortunately, Dunmire’s Harrisonville project encountered significant obstacles that proved insurmountable. His vision for the downtown conflicted with city planning regulations, zoning restrictions, and the preferences of city officials. Rather than finding compromises, relationships deteriorated. After feuding with city leaders, Dunmire took dramatic retaliatory action—he placed thousands of yard signs throughout Harrisonville attacking then-Mayor Kevin Wood, calling him a “carpetbagger.” This public campaign damaged relationships beyond repair.
Frustrated by what he perceived as bureaucratic obstruction and lack of vision from city leadership, Dunmire made a shocking decision. He essentially held the properties “hostage,” closing all of them overnight and walking away from the project. He refused to reinvest in the buildings or allow them to be developed by others. The properties deteriorated significantly, their value declining with each passing year. What had been intended as a revitalization project became a cautionary tale about the collision between private ambition and public governance.
The Aftermath and Legacy
Six years after Dunmire’s death, the Harrisonville downtown square remained largely abandoned. “For-sale” signs hung crookedly across dusty windows. Nearly every building in the square remained closed, not just at night but perpetually. Local historians estimated that it would require at least $1 million—if not significantly more—to salvage the historic buildings from deterioration. The dream of creating a “Westport of South Kansas City” had become, instead, a monument to unfulfilled ambition and unresolved conflict.
A website was launched in 2013 putting all of Dunmire’s Harrisonville properties up for sale, yet years later they remained largely on the market, waiting for someone with the vision, capital, and patience to complete what Dunmire had begun.
Giving Back to Law Enforcement
In a striking act of redemption, Dunmire eventually became a major philanthropist for law enforcement. Despite—or perhaps because of—his bank robbery conviction, he donated more than $1 million to various law enforcement agencies, primarily funding efforts against violent crime. This contribution reflected his evolution from a desperate young man committing crimes out of necessity to a wealthy individual committed to supporting the very institutions designed to prevent the crimes he had once committed.
The Eccentric Millionaire’s Philosophy
Dunmire’s entire approach to wealth revealed a distinctly different philosophy than most successful entrepreneurs. Rather than viewing money as a tool for accumulation and security, he saw it as an instrument for experience, generosity, and living fully. His statement that he probably spent $205 million when he made $200 million was not a failure in his mind—it was success. He had extracted maximum enjoyment and impact from his fortune.
This philosophy manifested in his treatment of employees, his spontaneous generosity, his spectacular wedding, his competitive bidding at auctions, and his ambitious urban revitalization project. Every major spending decision reflected his belief that life should be lived boldly and that wealth should be used to create experiences and opportunities for others.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why did Del Dunmire rob a bank?
A: Dunmire robbed a bank in 1958 to pay off an $800 gambling debt (some sources cite $5,000) he had accumulated while serving as an Air Force lieutenant. He was apprehended after a brief chase and served two years in prison.
Q: How much did Del Dunmire’s wedding cost?
A: Dunmire’s 1986 wedding to Debbie Lunsford cost more than $1 million. The celebration included renting over a thousand hotel rooms, hiring entertainment featuring Frankie Avalon, Fabian, and Bobby Rydell, and gifting the bride a carnival merry-go-round.
Q: What happened to Dunmire’s Harrisonville properties?
A: After conflicts with city officials over his revitalization plans, Dunmire closed all his properties and walked away from the project. They deteriorated significantly, and as of recent years, they remained largely abandoned and on the market for sale.
Q: How much money did Del Dunmire make and spend?
A: Dunmire made approximately $200 million in his lifetime through his aviation parts business, but spent an estimated $205 million, demonstrating his philosophy of spending wealth on experiences and generosity rather than accumulation.
Q: What was Growth Industries?
A: Growth Industries Inc. was Dunmire’s company founded after his release from prison. It sold essential aviation parts to major airlines like TWA and became the source of his substantial fortune.
Conclusion: The Most Interesting Man in the World
Del Dunmire may not have had the name recognition of other American business titans, but he embodied a distinctly American archetype: the self-made millionaire who refused conventional wisdom. From his inauspicious beginning as a college dropout and bank robber to his transformation into a generous, eccentric philanthropist and entrepreneur, Dunmire’s life defied simple categorization. He was a criminal who became a job creator, a gambler who built an empire, and a man who believed that the true measure of wealth was not how much you accumulated but how fully you lived. Whether through his legendary wedding, his random acts of generosity to employees, or his ambitious vision for Harrisonville, Dunmire left an indelible mark on Kansas City. While his Harrisonville dream remained unfulfilled, his legacy as the real “most interesting man in the world” endures—a testament to living boldly, spending generously, and refusing to accept that the American dream must look like everyone else’s.
References
- Del Dunmire: Entrepreneur Was True Most Interesting Man — Money Magazine. https://money.com/del-dunmire-kansas-city-most-interesting-man-in-the-world/
- The King of Cass County’s Bold Vision for Harrisonville Imploded — Kansas City Magazine. https://kansascitymag.com/the-king-of-cass-countys-bold-vision-for-harrisonville-imploded-can-anyone-revive-it/
- Millionaire Del Dunmire’s Estate Sale Underway in Harrisonville — KCTV5 News. November 12, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhL99QEc5_c
- Bank Robber Returns to Scene of Crime — UPI Archives. July 27, 1990. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/07/27/Bank-robber-returns-to-scene-of-crime/6372649051200/
- Look Back — Salina Journal. July 27, 2015. https://www.salina.com/story/lifestyle/features/2015/07/27/look-back/21140082007/
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