Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Maura McEnaney’s fascinating and wide-ranging biography of businessman and entrepreneur Willard Garvey is, in many ways, a history of 20th-century America itself.
Born in Dust Bowl country, as a teenager he rode the rails at the height of the Great Depression to work in California’s Grapes of Wrath orchards. He sailed on the Queen Mary to the European theater of World War II, where he was one of the first three American officers into Berlin following its fall, and attended the Potsdam Conference.
A visionary businessman who dreamed of “Every man a homeowner,” Garvey pioneered affordable home ownership in developing countries at a time when few if any knew or cared about the millions living in slums worldwide. Despite revolutions, coups, and Anti-American persecution, his World Homes provided thousands of families in countries from South America to Asia the opportunity of moving onto and up the economic ladder.
He hobnobbed with heads of state and captains of industry, counting 20th century titans J.B. Fuqua, Robert Galvin, and John Templeton as closest friends and confidantes. He started a short-lived fourth television network, and pushed for independent journalism in an era of tightly-controlled media. He even tried to start a new country.
Yet despite his far-flung operations, Garvey was never far from his hometown affairs. Organizing and hosting Saturday morning coffee-shop gatherings of ordinary concerned citizens, inveterate writer of Letters to the Editor, crusader against the overreach of government bureaucracy, Garvey ceaselessly fought for his fellow man to have the opportunities for success he had enjoyed and that he saw government’s growing powers threatening.
It is perhaps his final “biggest” achievement that stands as Willard Garvey’s legacy. Beyond owner-operator of the “world’s largest” grain elevator, and “largest private landowner in Nevada”: builder of Kansas’s tallest building—the Epic Center. Its slanted copper roof pointed to the sky, it echoes the Kansas state motto that could well serve as his, too: Ad Astra per Aspera, “To the stars, through difficulties.”
“Willard Garvey is, yes, great fun to read! What a saga; Garvey defines the term ‘larger than life.’ It is a wonderful story of a tireless pioneer and entrepreneur who carried the torch for free markets and freedom to innovate all around the world—overcoming obstacles which would have made any reasonable person turn tail and run like hell. In these confusing times, it is a tale that will both entertain and, better yet, inspire. Willard Garvey has renewed my spirits.”
“Willard Garvey was a long-time friend and supporter. As the wonderful book Willard Garvey shows, he was a man of action who could never sit still very long because he had so many projects that required his attention. As his friends and family will attest, men like Willard don’t come along very often. I was honored to play a small part in his life.”
“Willard Garvey liked to say that ‘life is a project.’ His own life, however, was not simply a project, but an amazing series of diverse projects, each the realization of his penchant for viewing every problem, whether private or public, as a beckoning opportunity. Living his long life at a breakneck pace till almost the very end, he left a visible legacy that included changing the skyline of his beloved Wichita, building improved housing for people in slum-ridden cities around the world, and hugely expanding the business empire he inherited from his pioneering father. For Willard, government was an intrusive problem and private enterprise a reliable solution, and his initiative never slackened as he advanced an endless stream of ideas and devoted his wealth and energies to the realization of his dreams for improving human welfare. Readers will find Maura McEnaney’s book Willard Garvey: An Epic Life to be a fascinating and well-rounded account of this remarkable man’s life and accomplishments.”
“Willard Garvey is an engaging and motivating story about a leader who made a real difference!”
