Harry M. Cornell Cause Of Death, Obituary Not Yet Available – Harry M. Cornell Jr. was known for being giving long before his name was put on buildings – he was a great tipper. Cornell’s old buddy Henry Robertson recalled, “When we went out to dine, we would alternate picking up the tab.” “Whenever it was his turn, he was always generous to the wait staff.”
According to joplinglobe.com, Cornell, a businessman and philanthropist, died on Sunday at the age of 93. Friends, colleagues, relatives, and coworkers remembered him as a man with a visionary ambition and a generous heart. Harry M. Cornell Jr. was known for being giving long before his name was put on buildings – he was a great tipper.
Cornell’s old buddy Henry Robertson recalled, “When we went out to dine, we would alternate picking up the tab.” “He was usually quite generous to the waitstaff when it was his turn.” Cornell, a businessman and philanthropist, died on Sunday at the age of 93. Friends, colleagues, relatives, and coworkers remembered him as a man with a visionary ambition and a generous heart.
Karl Glassman can attest to Cornell’s best advice. He worked under Cornell for more than 40 years at Leggett & Platt Inc., the manufacturing conglomerate that Cornell built into a behemoth, and saw him express gratitude to the servers.
But, according to Glassman, he was as generous to his employees. He recalled a period in the 1980s, before the invention of cellphones, when the company’s stock had plummeted. An employee approached Glassman at another location with worries about the stock; the single mother was planning to utilize it to pay for her child’s college education.
“I later found out that Harry paid for that kid’s education,” Glassman stated. “Harry Cornell is his name. He was so moved by the woman’s gamble that he reached out to her.” Cornell began working for Leggett & Platt as a high school student, unloading rail wagons, as the grandson of company founder J.P. Leggett. Cornell also reared pigeons and sold squabs, according to Robertson.
He joined the company in 1950 as a traveling salesman after graduating from the University of Missouri, and over the next ten years rose through the ranks to become president and CEO. Cornell demonstrated his talent for hard work with a friendly disposition, Robertson said, as he and his friend proceeded through college and joined the same fraternity.
“He was always very focused on whatever his objectives were,” Robertson added, “but he was always a gentleman.” “He had the remarkable quality of giving you his full attention while he was talking to you… not for the purpose of debating, but for listening and understanding.” “He believed that creativity was extremely important,” Beshore explained. “He would get to know artists who were selling their work and would want to support them and help them achieve their goals.”
Cornell, according to Hahn, enjoyed seeing his donations come to fruition. Cornell was thrilled to see the first KCU-Joplin students show up for classes; the campus recently graduated its second cohort. According to Robertson, he leaves behind an influence legacy defined by making relationships with people and assisting them in succeeding.
“Having met him, I feel a great feeling of pride in what he did and how generous he was in sharing the fruits of his achievement,” Robertson said. “He was always really friendly and down-to-earth, interested in people, despite his vast fortune.”
