LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

  The Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association just completed it’s 117th  Annual Meeting.  The K.C.M.B.A.  is one of the oldest bar associations west of the Mississippi.  It has been the recipient of many national honors including the ABA Award of Merit, Outstanding Overall Excellence, 1977 and President Ronald Reagan’s Citation for the Homeless Outreach Program, 1987.  The K.C. Bar Foundation received the 1999 Difference Maker Award for the Summer Law Internship Program, underwritten by The Lantz Welch Charitable Foundation.

  It occasionally bestows the Lifetime Achievement Award to an individual for a lifetime of outstanding service resulting in the growth and development of the law, improvement in the administration of justice and increased recognition of the contributions of the legal profession to the welfare of society.

  There have been 27 recipients of this association’s most prestigious award (attached is a list of some of the recipients).

  The award was given this year to Lantz Welch of Kansas City, MO. . . .  “in recognition of his outstanding and dedicated service to The Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association and K.C. Bar Foundation.  He has held the post of President for the Association and the Foundation and has responded continually to the  need of the law profession and the community.  His donations to the establishment of the Bar Center have enabled the Association to provide unlimited education services to the legal community and helped make the KCMBA a leader in this arena.  Since 1993, The Lantz Welch Charitable Foundation has underwritten the entire Summer Law Internship Program.  This program has provided internship positions in private practice and government to inner city youths interested in the legal profession and enabled the legal community to have a direct impact on their lives.  We honor him as an individual that continually strives to promote public confidence in the profession of law.”

                                                                               

SOME OF THE PAST RECIPIENTS

1960   Dr. Frederick D. Lewis, Dean of UKC Law School

 

1961  Justice Charles E. Whittaker, Supreme Court of U.S.

 

1967  Dean Patrick Kelly, Dean of UMKC Law School

 

1971  Judge Elmo B. Hunter, U.S. District Court

 

1980  Judge Floyd R. Gibson, U.S. District Court

 

1991  Judge Scott O. Wright, U.S. District Court

 

1992  George Brett  (special award)

 

1994  Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Supreme Court of U.S.

 

1996  Justice Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court of U.S.

 

1997  R. Lawrence Ward, Past President KCMBA

 

1998  Senator Nancy Kassebaum

 

1999  Senator Thomas Eagleton

                           

2001  Lantz Welch, Past President KCMBA