Kauffman, Ewing M(arion) (‘Mr K’) (1916–1993)

US pharmaceutical executive and philanthropist. In 1966 he and his wife founded the Kauffman Foundation, a US$1 billion organization with two current concerns: youth development programmes and the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (1992). Widely honoured, he received the Horatio Alger Award, the Southern Christian Leadership Award for his company's support of civil rights (1986), the Harry S Truman Good Neighbor Award, and was named one of President Bush's ‘1000 points of light’.

He was born near Garden City, Missouri. After graduating from junior college, and four years in the navy, he founded Marion Laboratories in 1950, a pharmaceutical firm made successful in part by his talented salesmanship. In 1989 it merged with Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (a unit of Dow Chemicals Company) to become Marion Merrell Dow. In 1968 he became the first and sole owner of the Kansas City Royals, the American League baseball team.