Harold Roe Bartle Harold Roe Bennett Sturdevant Bartle ( June 25 , 1901 – May 9 , 1974 ) was a businessman , philanthropist , Boy Scout executive , and professional public speaker who served two terms as mayor of Kansas City , Missouri . After Bartle helped lure the Dallas Texans American Football League team to Kansas City in 1962 , owner Lamar Hunt renamed the franchise the Kansas City Chiefs after Bartle ' s nickname , " The Chief . " Youth , education , and marriage . Bartle was born in Richmond , Virginia , the only child of Samuel Dunn Bartle , a Presbyterian minister and an immigrant from Scotland , and Ada Mae Roe of northern Illinois . The Bartle family was musical , and at age thirteen Harold was playing the piano and organ at his father ' s church . The same year he also attempted to enlist in the army , but his father produced proof of his age and had him discharged . Between 1916 and 1920 , Bartle attended Fork Union Military Academy , where his father taught history and military science . There Roe ( as he now insisted on being called ) became a championship debater . Bartle attended the University of Chattanooga in 1920 , where he proved a natural athlete , but he suffered a serious bout of pneumonia . He returned to his family , now in Lebanon , Kentucky , where in 1921 , he earned a law degree from Hamilton College of Law , a Chicago correspondence school . Bartle met Margaret Ann Caroline Jarvis in Lebanon , and they were married on September 26 , 1923 , in St . Joseph , Missouri , where his father had taken another pastorate . The Bartles had one child , Margaret Roe " Jimmy " Bartle Taylor . Bartle , who was 6 ' 4 " , weighed well over 200 pounds before his marriage , and he continued to gain until at one point he may have reached 375 . Scouting career . Bartle was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1920 ( before completing his correspondence degree ) and worked for a Lebanon firm ; he was also the Lebanon prosecuting attorney , 1920 - 22 . Nevertheless , Bartle ' s gifts were as an organizer and promoter , and he was unwilling to spend his life in the law . Bartle had supervised a Boy Scout troop in Lebanon , and in 1923 - 24 , he accepted a position as the executive of the Cheyenne Council of the Boy Scouts of America in Casper , Wyoming , a responsibility that included oversight of the entire state . From 1925 until 1928 he held a similar position in St . Joseph , Missouri ; and from 1928 until 1955 , he was the executive at the Kansas City Area Council . Bartle created the Tribe of Mic - O - Say honor society in Saint Joseph , Missouri in 1925 , although the inspiration for the program dated to his Wyoming years . A Boy Scout camp at Osceola , Missouri is named the H . Roe Bartle Scout Reservation in his honor . Business career . While a scouting executive , Bartle also engaged in profitable business enterprises and made shrewd investment decisions . He also served on the board of directors of numerous corporations and banks , including largest independent liquor dealer in Missouri . According to his daughter , when his friend , President Harry Truman , asked him to become the regional director of the Economic Stabilization Agency , Bartle had to resign from 57 boards of directors to avoid possible conflicts of interest . As a professional public speaker , he regularly addressed political , fraternal , educational , religious , civic , business , and service organizations . ( He had a rich , powerful voice , and in Nice , France , he blew out the public address system . ) By the time he ran for mayor , he was making 200 speeches a year at fees that ranged upwards from $ 1 , 000 each . One service club secretary was so dazzled by Bartle ' s rhetoric and humor that he announced Bartle had given " one of the most dynamic speeches ever heard by man . " A slightly skeptical reporter added that , nevertheless , " just what he said . . . was not recorded . " The money Bartle made in the private sector subsidized his public service and allowed him to fund organizations in which he took an interest . For instance , for 30 years he donated his Boy Scout salary to the organization . There were three Bartles , he said , the Bartle " who makes money , the Bartle who gives it away , and the Bartle who works for free . " Civic , philanthropic , and religious endeavors . Bartle seemed determined to participate in as many charitable organizations as possible . He accepted thirty appointments to philanthropic boards and commissions and in time became an executive in virtually all of them . During World War II , he served as director of American War Dads , a soldier - welfare group . After the war , from 1945 to 1952 , Bartle became interim president of Missouri Valley College , a small coeducational school associated with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church . In 1948 , while a college president , Bartle founded and contributed $ 100 , 000 toward establishing the American Humanics Foundation , now the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance , a philanthropic organization intended to prepare young people for careers in professional youth leadership in such organizations as the Boy Scouts , Camp Fire Girls , and the YWCA . Bartle was National President of Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity from 1931 until 1946 . Alpha Phi Omega grew from 18 chapters when he took office to 109 chapters when he stepped down . It was said that Bartle personally financed the fledgling organization . Bartle was a devout member of Central Presbyterian Church , Kansas City , from 1929 until his death , although he was often not in attendance because he was filling a pulpit somewhere else . ( If Bartle were called to substitute for a pastor who was ill , he needed only the time to dress and get to the church . He could work out the sermon on the way . ) Bartle served as a member of the general council of the Presbyterian Church ( U . S . A . ) , 1961 - 68 , and was a member of the General Assembly , 1962 - 66 . He was also a charter member of the National Conference of Christians and Jews . Bartle ' s wife said she believed he " could do anything on this earth that he sets out to do . . . and he has more energy than any other five men alive . " Bartle received numerous honors and awards for his public service , including honorary degrees from at least a dozen colleges and distinguished service medals from a dozen foreign governments . Mayor . In 1955 , Bartle , a Democrat with no previous political experience , was asked to run for mayor of Kansas City on the Citizens ' Association ticket . Although the Citizen ' s Association ( of which Bartle had been a founder ) had helped sweep the Pendergast political machine out of power in 1940 , Bartle chose to run as an independent with Citizen Association support . However , in his reelection campaign of 1959 , Bartle also accepted the tacit support of the remnants of the Pendergast machine , leading to unfounded fears about the possible revival of " boss politics . " In Kansas City , the mayor was comparatively weak , effectively an at - large city councilman ; but Bartle , not surprisingly , was superb at performing the inspirational and ceremonial aspects of his office . During his two terms , Bartle oversaw the desegregation of the city hospitals and removed them from political influence . He also overhauled the city tax structure , organized the mayors and city manager s of 67 nearby towns into a planning council , supported the advancement of African - American police officers , and oversaw initial construction of the Kansas City airport and a nearby freeway . Also during his two terms , the Philadelphia Athletics professional baseball team and the Dallas Texans professional football team moved to Kansas City , the latter adopting Bartle ' s nickname , " Chief . " While he was mayor , Bartle went to all two - alarm fires in a fireman ' s hat , coat and boots ; and every weekday morning at 8 AM — or when he could actually make it to the station — he broadcast a radio report to the city . Bartle found his first term the more enjoyable . Then he had carried into office virtually the entire Citizens Association ticket . During his second term , a block of councilmen stymied his plans . Although Bartle remained on the 1963 ticket , he asked voters not to reelect him . Personality . Bartle was a hail - fellow - well - met , who " never knew a stranger " and demonstrated an impressive recall of names . On Christmas , he would regularly spend the day visiting orphanages , the Boy ' s Home , the city jail , and other places that might be overlooked on such a holiday . For most of his life , Bartle lived simply , becoming more expansive in his personal spending only after being elected mayor . ( His greatest extravagance until that point was fine cigars , of which he smoked 25 per day . ) Bartle idolized his clergyman father and displayed some guilt for not having followed in his profession . Bartle continued to make major decisions only after deciding what his father would have done in a similar circumstance . But Roe Bartle hated the penury of the clergyman ' s life . The first time he asked a girl for a date , she rejected him because he was dressed in ill - fitting , second - hand clothes . Crushed , he swore before a mirror , " hand upraised , " that no child of his would ever know poverty . But once he had the money , he also acquired expensive hand - tailored suits . " Kansas City Star " editor Roy A . Roberts was puzzled by Bartle , " You can say almost anything you like about Roe Bartle — call him demagogue , opportunist , tycoon or dedicated saint — and you will be correct , but you will speak only half truths . Nobody knows Bartle . He is too complex to be figured out . " Death . In later years , Bartle was plagued by health problems including phlebitis and injuries to his back and legs caused by a 1944 plane crash . Bartle died on May 9 , 1974 , from complications of diabetes and heart disease . He was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery . The Kansas City Convention Center , completed in 1984 , was named Bartle Hall in his honor , and Bartle ' s wife and friends provided items for exhibit cases that there memorialize his life . Bartle ' s papers are in the State Historical Society of Missouri .