Dunn Family to Receive Rashford-Lyon Award from Rockhurst University
Rockhurst University will honor members of the Dunn family with its Rashford-Lyon Award for Leadership and Ethics, recognizing the family’s impact on the Kansas City community through its century-old business, JE Dunn Construction, and their philanthropic and civic leadership.
Members of the family will receive the award as part of the annual Rockhurst University Leadership Series event featuring keynote speaker Jim McKelvey, scheduled for 4:30 p.m., on Wednesday, April 1, at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
The company’s longtime CEO, Bill Dunn Sr., is a 1946 graduate of Rockhurst. He and his late wife, Jean, gave each of their sons the gift of a Jesuit education at Rockhurst as they prepared to help lead the family company. Honored with the Rashford-Lyon Award will be Bill Sr.; Bill Jr., ’70, ’82 EMBA, and his wife Marianne; Terry, ’71, and his wife Peggy; Steve, ’74, and his wife Anne; Kevin, ’80; and Bob, ’83, ’90 MBA, and his wife Amy.
The Dunn family has stood as a pillar of Kansas City’s economic power for more than one hundred years. JE Dunn Construction is one of the largest general contractors in the U.S., with regional offices across the country, more than 5,000 employees, and total construction work completed to date exceeding $8 billion. Their portfolio included the construction of the Overland Park-based Sprint campus (now the Aspiria campus), the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, and the renovation of the Austin Convention Center and the Texas Capitol in Austin, Texas, alongside many other local and national projects.
In 1981 the company launched the Dunn Family Foundation. Through the foundation, the company gives back 10% of its net profits each year to area nonprofits. And employees spend more than 50,000 hours annually in service to others as part of company-led community engagement efforts. Family members are also leaders in their communities, giving their time by serving on nonprofit boards of directors and even as elected leaders of area communities.
Their efforts are guided by a long-held set of values that include the importance of faith and family as well as an approach to business that prizes honesty and ethics for customers and employees alike. Through their family business and their leadership in the Kansas City community outside of it, the Dunn family exemplifies the core values of Jesuit leadership Rockhurst University teaches.
The Rashford-Lyon Award for Leadership and Ethics is named for two of Rockhurst’s influential leaders: the late Tom Lyon, Ph.D., and the late Rev. Nick Rashford, S.J. Established in 2014, the Rashford-Lyon Award for Leadership and Ethics honors recipients who exemplify high ethical standards of business conduct with excellence in leadership as demonstrated by outstanding initiative, impact of work and inspiration to others. Past recipients include Tom Lyon, Ph.D.; Jane Chu, Ph.D., ’05 EMBA; Mayor Sly James, ’80; Patricia Cleary Miller, Ph.D.; Tom McCullough, ’64, and Tom McDonnell, ’66; Jean Dunn, Wendy Doyle, ’94, Lisa Ginter, ’87, Ama Karikari, M.D., ’07, Marny Sherman, ’75, and Bridgette Williams, ’16 EMBA; Joe Reardon, '90; Madeline Romious, ’95 MBA; Dave Harrison, ’81, and Denny Thum, ’74.
