William Volker (April 1, 1859 – November 4, 1947) was an entrepreneur who turned a picture frame business into a multimillion-dollar empire and who then gave away his fortune to shape much of Kansas City, Missouri, both through the William Volker Fund and anonymously earning him the nickname of "Mr. Anonymous."
Volker was born in Hanover, Germany, and moved with his family to Chicago in 1871. In 1876 at the age of 17 he began working for a picture frame manufacturer. When the owner died three years later he bought the company and moved to Kansas City in 1880 where he started the William Volker Company at 6 West 3rd Street.
His picture frame and window shade business boomed and he remained a bachelor until marrying in 1911 at age 52. Returning from his honeymoon he announced he had put $1 million in his wife's name and that he planned to give away $10 million.
He was to spend the rest of his life giving away his fortune often anonymously. Among his donations was 40 acres (160,000 m2) and a house that was to start the University of Kansas City which became the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Famous quotes containing the word william:
“We agree fully that the mother and unborn child demand special consideration. But so does the soldier and the man maimed in industry. Industrial conditions that are suitable for a stalwart, young, unmarried woman are certainly not equally suitable to the pregnant woman or the mother of young children. Yet “welfare” laws apply to all women alike. Such blanket legislation is as absurd as fixing industrial conditions for men on a basis of their all being wounded soldiers would be.”
—National Woman’s Party, quoted in Everyone Was Brave. As, ch. 8, by William L. O’Neill (1969)