Remembering a Kansas City Giant: Richard Harriman
In the mid-1960s, Kansas City was having an arts crisis. Two of its longtime arts presenters were going out of business, and that meant the city was in danger of losing the cultural enrichment of live arts performances.
Richard Harriman, an English professor at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, and his officemate and fellow professor D. Dean Dunham, Jr. weren’t going to let that happen. They petitioned the college to fund performing arts events, and the college agreed. From its start with two events offered in the 1965-1966 academic year, the Harriman-Jewell Series has become a cornerstone of Kansas City’s cultural life with a commitment to bring the best of the performing arts. Harriman served as the Series’ artistic director for the first 45 of 55 seasons.
Harriman died 10 years ago (July 15, 2010), leaving a legacy to be treasured for generations to come.
Born in Independence, Missouri, Harriman graduated from William Jewell College in 1953, served in the U.S. Army from 1953 to 1955 and earned his M.A. from Stanford University in 1959. He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow from 1957 to 1958. He also studied at the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford University. Harriman is in Who’s Who in America, as well as Who’s Who in American Education and the Directory of American Scholars.
Year after year, Harriman and his staff brought the most extraordinary world-class talent to Kansas City, from American Ballet Theatre to opera superstars like Leontyne Price, as well as solo virtuosos and orchestras like Chicago Symphony Orchestra and The Philadelphia Orchestra. Harriman was also lauded for his many debut presentations, such as Luciano Pavarotti’s first professional recital (1973), held on the William Jewell College campus.
Richard Harriman, with his warm and courtly nature, formed lasting friendships with many of these great artists, like pianist Emanuel Ax and violinist Itzhak Perlman. Tenor Juan Diego Flórez invited Harriman to his wedding in Peru in 2008 — and he attended! Prairie Village, Kansas, native and star mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato became friends with Harriman toward the end of his life and has often credited the Harriman-Jewell Series as an important part of her development as a young artist.
Clark Morris, Harriman’s successor as executive and artistic director of the Harriman-Jewell Series, was not aware of Richard Harriman before his first year at William Jewell in 1987 but had a life-changing encounter after coming to campus.
“I didn’t know who Richard was until I joined a fraternity and Richard was the faculty advisor,” Morris said. “I was almost a little nervous to talk to him at first because he was incredibly refined, always very well dressed. He’d wear a three-piece suit to fraternity meetings. That’s the way he walked around campus. He was very articulate, a mountain of intellectual capacity. I thought he was the most sophisticated, worldly and well-traveled person I’d ever met.”
Morris soon began work for the Series as a student intern, was hired full-time and became Harriman’s protégé, trusted colleague, and friend.
Now as Clark Morris leads the Harriman-Jewell Series, it faces one of the most challenging periods in its 55-season history. Morris says he often wonders how Harriman would have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. He is reminded of the time Luciano Pavarotti was to give his fifth recital on the Harriman-Jewell Series in 1989, but the tenor decided he couldn’t sing at the last minute.
“I walked up to the Music Hall and Richard was on the steps in his tuxedo,” Morris said. “He was telling people very calmly that this big black-tie affair, one of the most expensive classical tickets in the history of Kansas City, wasn’t going to happen. It’s that calm that carries me on. No matter what happens, you just calmly work through. There’s going to be a tomorrow, and we’re going to move forward in the best way we can. We will make it happen.”
Our Kansas City community can be assured that the spirit of Richard Harriman is a guiding light for the Harriman-Jewell Series.
For information about upcoming Harriman-Jewell Series presentations, visit hjseries.org or call 816-415-5025.
–Patrick Neas
