Orange County has lost a champion in the passing of Don Kennedy.
I do not use the word “champion” lightly. Don Kennedy was a remarkably gifted business and community leader.
I was privileged to sit on the board of directors of First American Financial Corp. when Don Kennedy served as chairman. I had the opportunity to carefully observe him in action, and I began to understand the depth and breadth of the attributes of his leadership: how he insisted on quality; how he used humor to lighten up a tired discussion or tone down an argument; and perhaps most important, how he always treated everyone with the utmost respect.
Indeed, it was that last quality, I believe, that has made First American Financial not just financially successful but also widely admired for its community-oriented culture.
It was Don Kennedy who convinced the board of First American in the 1950s to expand beyond Orange County. The expansion made it possible to grow its annual revenue from less than $1.5 million in 1957 to more than $4 billion last year. That total doesn’t even include the billions of dollars generated by CoreLogic Inc., a company spun-off from First American in 2010.
Top Service
I believe the key to Don Kennedy’s leadership is the value he inculcated within First American to always provide the highest-quality service to the customer. That attribute was evident at Chapman University in Orange, where he served for 24 years as a key trustee leader and left an indelible imprint on our university.
Our law school would not exist today if it weren’t for Don Kennedy’s guidance and support. And it was his never-failing insistence on quality that led us to aspire to the highest goals for its progress.
I’ll never forget our board of trustees’ deliberations about where we should locate the law school. Several cities hoped to have the school located in their communities and offered generous incentives that tempted many of us.
After everyone spoke their piece, Don raised his hand and said quite simply: “We need to locate the law school on campus. Otherwise, it will never be one of the best.”
Honorable
Don Kennedy commanded such respect on our board that that was it. No more talk. Case closed.
While I respected Don Kennedy, at that relatively early period of my presidency I hadn’t yet developed the deep regard I now hold for him. I looked to him as a mentor and adviser, and we generally saw things eye-to-eye. There was a time, though, when Don recommended against an action I was determined to follow in spite of his strenuous objection.
When that action of mine resulted in what I have come to view as the worst decision I’ve made as Chapman’s president, I learned to listen to Don the first time around.
After he made a major gift to the law school, I told Don the board wanted to name the school in his honor. He demurred, saying, “Let’s wait for the law school to hit the top 10, then we can sell that naming to someone else for a lot more money.”
Because of Don’s intransigence on that point, we named the law school building in his honor. We didn’t even ask on that one, for we knew he’d turn that down, too.
In addition to being a transformational leader in the progress of our university, Don Kennedy also served as a board leader at Bowers Museum of Cultural Art and South Coast Repertory. It wasn’t just happenstance that his involvement in these organizations as well as Chapman coincided with all three moving from regionally to nationally recognized institutions. I guess that’s why he’s the stuff of legend.
We are truly blessed in our community to be the beneficiary of Donald Kennedy’s legacy. May he always inspire us to be the best that we can be and remind us that the highest value we can hold is to always treat everyone with respect and dignity.
Doti is president of Chapman University in Orange.
