David W. Kemper

St. Louis might be David W. Kemper's adopted city, but he long ago dropped "adopted" from his vocabulary.

Now St. Louis is returning the embrace: Kemper is this year's Citizen of the Year. A committee of past winners chose him for the award, sponsored by the Post-Dispatch.

Kemper, 56, came to St. Louis 21 years ago, two years after the Kansas City bank founded by his family took over County Tower Corp., which anchored the corner of Forsyth Boulevard and Meramec Avenue in Clayton. The building is now the de facto headquarters of Commerce Bancshares Inc., where Kemper is chairman, president and chief executive.

Kemper has built Commerce into what he calls a "super community bank," with 198 branches in Missouri, Illinois and Kansas. It's known as a solid performer, with a conservative bent.
As larger banks in St. Louis were bought up by national banking companies in the 1980s and 1990s, Commerce stayed independent and emerged as the largest bank based in St. Louis and Missouri.

John Dubinsky, a former banking rival and now a collaborator in building the region's biotechnology assets, said Kemper "moved over here and paid his dues and has become right at the center of St. Louis leadership. In many ways, we didn't adopt him: He adopted us."

While the rest of the family remained rooted in Kansas City, Kemper planted himself and his family here. He and his wife, Dotty, have become benefactors of many of the city's leading institutions, from the Missouri Botanical Garden to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and from Cardinal Ritter College Prep to Washington University.

After Kemper took over as chief executive from his father, James, in 1986, more and more of the bank's management migrated to St. Louis, Commerce's biggest market. Although its legal home still is Kansas City, the hub of the bank's operations is here.

Dotty Kemper says she had little trouble moving to St. Louis all those years ago.

"I'm an Army brat," she said. She said the move was harder on her husband, a lifelong Kansas City resident. He disagreed.

"We've tremendously enjoyed living here," he said.

Andrew C. Taylor, chairman and chief executive of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, first met Kemper on an athletic field. Kemper was playing football for Pem Day School of Kansas City, now known as Pembroke Hill School. Taylor played for John Burroughs School.

They renewed their acquaintance when Commerce bought County Tower, which was Enterprise's bank.

"When he got here, he plunged in right away," Taylor said "He got me very involved in the Missouri Botanical Garden." Later, Kemper supported the Taylor family's drive to boost the symphony's endowment.

"He's taken the community under his wing, but in a very low-key way," Taylor said.

Kemper said, "I think the role of a banker is to be involved in the community. It's the right thing to do."

Kemper said his work with the Missouri Botanical Garden dovetailed with his concern about the environment and his love of gardening. He keeps perennial beds at his Ladue home.

Kemper's been on the garden board since 1986, and served as chairman from 1998 to 2000. The William T. Kemper Center for Home Gardening is named for his great-uncle.

Peter H. Raven, director of the botanical garden, said Kemper "gets right to the core of any situation, regardless of the level of challenge posed, in a swift, strategic and pragmatic manner, always with the big picture in mind."

Kemper said he likes to "pick institutions of excellence, where we can get things accomplished." To that end, he's worked as a trustee of Washington University as well as with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and with Cardinal Ritter College Prep.

"Clearly, Washington University is our pre-eminent asset," said Kemper, who is chairman. He values its leadership in research, in education and as a catalyst for urban development.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton said Kemper has taken a keen interest in areas ranging from the library and undergraduate education to the development of the new Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, named for Kemper's mother, on the university's hilltop campus.

"He's a person who does his homework," Wrighton said.

George Henry, superintendent of Catholic education for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, said Kemper's quiet confidence guided the effort to rebuild Cardinal Ritter College Prep just west of Grand Center.

Henry said he had to decide whether to close Cardinal Ritter soon after he became superintendent in 1995. The school was losing enrollment, in part because of its crumbling building in the troubled Walnut Park neighborhood.

"To me, it seemed pretty hopeless," Henry said. But Kemper, who had read about the school's success in graduating college-bound inner city students, got interested in the project, even though he isn't Catholic. (Dotty Kemper is Catholic; he was raised Episcopalian.)

"He met with Cardinal (Justin) Rigali, who was my boss. He said to him that this is something that must be continued," Henry said. Rigali was then the archbishop of St. Louis.

Kemper became the honorary head of the Cardinal Ritter project and co-fundraiser with David Farrell, the former chief executive of May Department Stores Inc. Together, they raised $20 million of the $30 million needed to build the new school, which opened in 2003.

Leon Henderson, Cardinal Ritter's president, said: "His leadership in galvanizing the business community around this project was just phenomenal. He does these things and doesn't look for a pat on the back."

Kemper says institutions like Cardinal Ritter can help develop more African-American professionals who will stay in St. Louis and spark its renewal.

Kemper said the Citizen of the Year award will give him the chance to "talk about things I feel strongly about."

"Sometimes St. Louis is a little hard on itself," Kemper said. "We have a lot of great things going here. We ought to be positive about that."

jerristroud@post-dispatch.com