Views West
by Murrel Bland
I received an email a few days ago from John J. Jurcyk, a lawyer, saying that O.L. Plucker had died. Jurcyk received the message from Ruth Kent, Plucker’s longtime secretary. He was 92.
Plucker served as superintendent of the Kansas City, Kan., School District from 1962 until 1986. I had much respect and admiration for Plucker as an administrator and a community leader. I usually agreed with him on most issues.
However, I do recall one disagreement that resulted in a heated conversation in 1977. We both served on the executive committee of the Kansas City, Kan., Area Chamber of Commerce; we met monthly for breakfast at the Terrace Club atop the New Brotherhood Building to take care of chamber business.
That meeting was on a Wednesday morning. On the day before, I received a letter from Plucker that upset me. I had written an editorial opposing the federal desegregation plan. What caused me to oppose it was the one-way busing of black children for racial balance.
Plucker knew that my daughter would attend kindergarten that fall. He suggested that her mother and I would want to send her not to a nearby school that was predominantly white (Claude Huyck) but to a predominantly black school in the northeast part of town — Benjamin Banneker.
I was upset — not that Plucker disagreed with me — but that he involved my child as part of the disagreement. The conversation occurred at the end of the chamber meeting; it digressed into little more than a shouting match.
Two of the chamber board members at the meeting were rather outspoken men — Bill Little, the chamber president, and Cliff Nesselorde, a banker and a chamber officer. They and others quickly left when the shouting began.
Plucker and I sat and discussed the desegregation issue — and several other matters — for at least an hour. We shook hands at the end of the meeting; I don’t recall that we ever had any other serious disagreements.
Plucker was an excellent superintendent. But I believe his greatest contribution to the community was leading a committee that changed the form of city government from a patronage-riddled commission to a mayor-council-administrator form. I was privileged to serve on that committee during most of 1981.
The issue to change the form of city government was put on the primary election ballot in August of 1982; it passed by a slim margin of less than 100 votes as I recall. The victory was seen as a turning point that broke the stranglehold that hack politicians had on City Hall.
It was Plucker’s political expertise along with Bill Little’s fund-raising capability that assured the issue was successful. If that change in city government had not occurred, it would not have been possible to consolidate city and county government in 1997.
In the early 1980s, the Boss Lady (Carol Bland), a former elementary and junior high teacher, served on a voluntary committee that studied a proposal to change to a middle school attendance plan. I recall that the Boss Lady asked me what to expect.
I told her that Plucker will run the meeting and provide much written information about middle schools. He will lead you through the process and you will believe that the conclusion (favoring middle schools) was the group’s idea, I said. That was what happened.
I recall having a conversation I had with former Mayor Joe McDowell about my work on the change of government study committee.
“You know, O.L. Plucker is the smartest person to ever hit this town,” McDowell said. I agreed.
Services for Orvin Lowell Plucker will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 18, at the Old Mission United Methodist Church, 5519 State Park Rd., Fairway. Memorial contribution to the church or Cross-Lines Community Outreach, 736 Shawnee Ave., are suggested.
Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He is the executive director of Business West.