James B. Nutter Sr.

Nutter is credited for refusing to adhere to the discriminatory lending practices of the day and the company was one of the first to make home loans in black neighborhoods and to single women on a large scale.

[5] Nutter earned a business degree from the University of Missouri in 1949, after serving 11⁄2 years in the U.S. Army at Camp Stoneman near San Francisco.

[11] Nutter acquired a wide swath of older homes in Kansas City's historic Westport neighborhood and turned them into a collection of eclectic, entrepreneurial office spaces known as Nutterville.

[12] Nutter's renovation of the 1847 Nathan Scarritt House and his creation of Nutterville earned him a 2004 Annual Recognition Award, in the historic preservation category, from the Jackson County (Mo.)

[13] In 1979, Nutter helped spearhead a successful drive to win approval for a bond issue to replace an aging jail, atop the Jackson County Courthouse in downtown Kansas City, where inmates had to be hosed down to relieve their suffering in the summer heat.

For example, in 1964 Nutter canvassed his own neighborhood to help pass a city ordinance that made it illegal for shops, hotels and restaurants to refuse service to black patrons.

[6] As a young man, Nutter got to know President Harry S. Truman, fostering a lifelong interest in local, state and national politics.