Editor's note: This profile of Jim Anderson was produced by freelance contributor and longtime local journalist Mike O'Brien, who suggested the subject. Jim Anderson serves as one of four members of the Hauxeda Board of Directors.
There are few individuals more identified with modern-day Springfield than Jim Anderson.
His email handle is “SGFJIM,” for goodness sake. But many probably don’t know that he had two successful careers in Jefferson City before manning the helm of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce for more than a quarter-century.
Those who are aware that Anderson had earlier careers in Missouri’s capital may not realize that his move to Springfield in 1988 actually was a homecoming.
Anderson, 74, recently drew a full-circle picture of his personal and professional history after being coaxed into a conversation at his east Springfield home, as he continues a successful recovery from two brain surgeries to unravel an entanglement between a blood vessel and a nerve that impaired his hearing and balance.
Anderson was born in Ozark, where his family ran Anderson Hardware on the town square.
“I had a really wonderful childhood growing up in Ozark,” he says. “But many people in Springfield have thought, and still do think, that I was a native of Jefferson City.”
Shining shoes, selling hardware, winning debates
As a youngster, Anderson earned money mowing his in-town neighbors’ lawns, shining shoes on Ozark’s square and working in the hardware store, plus doing some chores on a farm where his father, Gratz Anderson, raised cattle a few miles outside of town along the Finley River.
At the same time, in the 1950s and ‘60s he also acquired fond memories on frequent visits to Springfield – playing Kiwanis League baseball; seeing movies in theaters and drive-ins; attending the circus at the Shrine Mosque; shopping at Heer’s, Barth’s and Marx; eating at the Davidson and Heritage cafeterias and at then-popular restaurants including Shady Inn, Cat & Fiddle, Fisher’s Hi-Boy, Enyart’s and Flaming Pit.
Valedictorian of the Class of 1967 at Ozark High, Anderson was involved in speech and debate competition and served as student body president his senior year. Anderson’s next graduation was in 1971 from what then was Southwest Missouri State College (now MSU), where he continued to participate in debate and earned teaching certification.
“My father always wanted me to go to law school, but I got an opportunity to go to Jefferson City and coach high school debate there,” Anderson said. “I really wanted to do that, so I started teaching speech and coaching debate in '71. I did that for four years, and it was a really great experience. I loved living in Jefferson City, and I still have good friends there to this day.
“But then in '75 I decided, ‘OK, I guess I’ll go to law school,’ and I was looking at enrolling at UMKC. But the school superintendent asked me to stay in Jefferson City and take a position called Director of School-Community Relations. It really intrigued me. I knew my father would be upset — but, frankly, I do not have any regret about taking the job. I did that one for four years, too.”
Sticking around Jefferson City
One reason Anderson doesn’t regret staying with the school system is that he met a new graduate of Kansas State University, Janet Bernard, who had been hired to teach horticulture at Jefferson City High.
“She was very attractive to me, so I asked her out — but I think it was five times before she finally agreed to go out with me,” Anderson recounts with a chuckle. “We had our first date in November, and she tells the story that when she went home (to Shawnee Mission, Kansas) for Thanksgiving, her parents asked her if she was dating anybody. And she said, ‘Well, not really, but this fat, old, bald-headed guy keeps asking me out, so I finally went out with him.’”
The chuckle turns to a hearty laugh as he adds, “That’s a direct quote. She told me that, and she’s told it to others, too.”
Her initial assessment of him improved, and they continued to date, became an engaged couple and married in August of 1978. A few months later, another major change occurred:
“The chamber of commerce job opened up in Jefferson City,” Anderson said. “I was on the chamber’s board of directors, and several fellow board members and other friends urged me to consider applying. But I really loved the school job, I’d just gotten married, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that. However, they convinced me to go through the process. To show how conflicted I was, when I did get the job offer, it took me three weeks before I gave them a decision.
“I started that job in February of 1979. I missed the kids, I missed all the school relationships,” Anderson said. “But I really enjoyed my tenure at the Jeff City chamber. I was in that job there nine years.”
Rocky times in late ‘80s Springfield
The move to Springfield came about as Springfield chamber executive Bill Dauer, upon announcing his impending retirement, recommended Anderson as his successor. The two had come to know each other through statewide chamber activities.
“I was one of three finalists — the others were from Little Rock [Arkansas] and from Arizona,” says Anderson. “I really wanted the Springfield job, not only for the professional opportunities, which were tremendous, but also because my father had been diagnosed with cancer and I wanted to come back home to be closer.”
Anderson took the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce reins in 1988. He retired as president in 2014, two years after the Springfield organization had been heralded as the national “Chamber of the Year.”
“There were a lot of ups and a lot of downs during that time period,” Anderson said.
He cites early challenges involving contentious local labor situations; a largely dormant downtown business district; the need for a capital improvements city sales tax; frustrations over lack of a first-class, fully equipped convention center; and divergent opinions within the chamber itself as well as the community as a whole over the desirability of growth, economic and otherwise.
The latter issue threatened to cut short Anderson’s employment at the Springfield chamber after only a couple years.
“Hardly anyone remembers it now, so when I mention today that there once was a public campaign to get me fired — and [City Manager] Tom Finnie, too — because we were in favor of growth, the reaction is ‘What are you talking about?’
“I was called a ‘socialist’ at a City Council meeting,” Anderson said. “Some chamber stalwarts even dropped out in protest — they didn’t want to have to pay competitive wages, and they didn’t want to have to compete for labor.”
Zenith exits, plant repurposed
The situation came to a head in 1991 when Zenith Electronics Corp., which had become Springfield’s largest industrial employer when it built a sprawling TV set manufacturing plant on East Kearney Street and hired 3,300 workers in 1967, announced it intended to lay off the remaining 1,500 employees in stages and transfer all production to Mexico over a span of four years.
Anderson was tipped off to the closing at lunch with the plant manager mere hours before the public announcement.
“I hurried back to my office and called a meeting of city leaders,” Anderson said. “We decided right then that we weren’t going to wring our hands and say ‘Woe is us.’ Rather, we were going to do what we could to turn economic activity around.”
Among the first positive outcomes was transforming the Zenith plant — some 40 acres under roof — into Sportsman’s Park, occupied largely by Bass Pro’s corporate offices and catalog fulfillment operation, in the mid-1990s. The major development was a controversial concept new to Springfield: an industrial park created by a public-private partnership.
Anderson says success was possible in large part because of already-underway efforts, both personal and organizational, to foster cooperation among key community stakeholders.
“The chamber was the place that collaboration happened,” he says. “We were able to accomplish some things that we might not have been able to do otherwise without the trust and cooperation that we had been building among a lot of folks.”
A ‘Triad' pulling Springfield’s strings?
In addition to the chamber’s hosting of general meetings among Springfield’s civic, business and institutional leaders to discuss problems and propose solutions, Anderson confirms that he, Finnie and City Utilities General Manager Robert Roundtree held regular private sessions — a habit that had been hinted in a 1994 newspaper series entitled “Who Runs Springfield?” An article in the series referred to the Anderson-Finnie-Roundtree combo as a “Trilateral Commission,” or “The Triad,” that is “pulling the strings in Springfield.”
“We all liked to smoke cigars,” Anderson recalls, “and back then, on more Sunday afternoons than not, the three of us would get together in my office, turn on the exhaust fan and light up cigars, then talk about the issues of the previous week and what was coming up. We didn’t always agree, but I think that working relationship bettered the community.”
The industrial park, formally named Partnership Industrial Center (PIC) and created on 340 acres on East Kearney Street, was a familiar notion for Anderson.
“We’d formed a city-county-chamber partnership when I was in Jefferson City and built an industrial park there,” Anderson said. “There was nothing that was new or foreign about the concept to me, but it was new and foreign in Springfield.”
Using public money, especially funds provided by CU, to finance development of the industrial site upset some in the community. However, Anderson notes that unlike other cities who offer free land to incoming industries, PIC lots were sold to companies seeking to set up shop there.
“We sold at cost — we didn’t make any money on the sales, but we didn’t lose any,” Anderson assures.
That is in keeping with one of his key philosophies: “We always offered normal incentives for businesses to locate here, but we would not play the ‘corporate welfare’ game. We told them, ‘We want you here for the right reasons — long-haul, not for short-term wrong reasons.’
“And then what about existing manufacturers?” he asks.
Anderson terms it hypocritical to offer newcomers extraordinary lucrative breaks that could put established local businesses at competitive disadvantages.
“It stirs a lot of resentment, as it should,” Anderson said. “So we just never played that game.”
More of Jim Anderson’s philosophical tenets:
– “I’ve always had the philosophy that there is nothing more important for economic development than community betterment. I mean, the ultimate product is the community. So you’d better do the best you can to have the best community you can.”
– “Community involvement is in my DNA. I was very involved in the community in Jefferson City, and I have been in Springfield. I do the business stuff, but I get as much, if not more, satisfaction out of doing the nonprofit work that I’m involved in.”
– “One of the things I’m most proud of in my time at the chamber was hiring and retaining great people. Our folks were involved in all aspects of the community – they walked the talk. For instance, when there was talk of closing Campbell Elementary School because of low test scores, the chamber said ‘Let’s do what we can to help.’ And so we all went over weekly and worked with those kids. And the test scores turned around.”
– “Of course, education is my background. I believe in a focus on education being a community priority. So the chamber started recruiting and endorsing candidates for the school board.” Anderson concedes that the Springfield chamber is one of the few to get so involved in local school board elections. And he is dismayed that current Springfield R-12 Board of Education politics have become so partisan. “But I still think it’s appropriate for the chamber to be proactive and involved.”
– “I’ve always been a big fan of being a welcoming community when it comes to diversity and equality and inclusion. I think Springfield has made some great strides. I want us to continue to be a welcoming community, to continue to be a place of opportunity to young professionals. We’ve really worked hard at that. We have a lot of great young professionals who’ve chosen to be here. I know “quality of place” has become a cliche now, but it really is very important.”
– “In my era we sort-of lived to work. But young people today work to live. They have a much better balance of quality of life. They have a much healthier attitude. They have it figured out more than we did in my era.”
– “I’ve always said — and I honestly believe this — that Springfield is the right size. We’re large enough to have some of the amenities of a metro area, but still small enough to have that small town flavor and charm and feel. I think it’s what separates our community from a lot of others. And God help us if we ever lose that delicate balance.”
Anderson says that he had opportunities to consider chamber jobs elsewhere — he mentions inquiries from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Austin, Texas, Raleigh, North Carolina, and even from back in Jefferson City a couple of times — but he is happy he stayed in Springfield.
“Those other communities are all great, and I have good friends running those chambers. But I chose not to do it. Bigger is not always better. I just felt that we were the right-sized community.”
Life after the Springfield Chamber of Commerce
When he retired from his chamber post in 2014, Anderson didn’t take to a rocking chair. He signed on with CoxHealth as vice president of marketing and public affairs, a move that had been in the works for about 18 months after he was approached by CoxHealth’s then CEO, Steve Edwards. Anderson worked for the hospital system full time for three years, then gradually backed down his hours until retiring altogether in 2020.
What about his personal future? Any truth to rumors that he might consider a run for political office?
“No,” he insists. “I’ve been asked several times, and I’ve honestly considered it. But no.”
If he ever changed his mind and decided to throw his hat into the political ring, a fact that probably would surprise many is that, contrary to the stereotypical Republican political leanings of members of chambers of commerce, Anderson is a Democrat, influenced by his parents’ lifelong political affiliation with that party.
His mother, Grace, served as treasurer of heavily-Republican Christian County; and she and his father took turns as chairpersons of the county’s Democratic committee.
“In those days,” Anderson jokes, “the only things that protected the few Democrats in Christian County were the game laws.”
He recalls being appointed to the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission from 2001 to 2009 as a Democrat.
“You can’t believe how many people said to me: ‘You’re a Democrat? I had no idea!’ I viewed that as a compliment,” Anderson said. “I’ve always tried to work with all sides, and I have friends — close friends — on both sides of the aisle. I’ve had people who were just flabbergasted about that. I took a lot of comfort in that.”
Anderson says he hopes to resume vacation travel after knee replacement surgery that is scheduled for December.
“I want to enjoy family and friendships. I feel like I sort-of shortchanged my family during the chamber years; I was often out four nights a week at meetings and events. So now I want to prioritize quality time with family and friends. And to do some traveling. And, of course, hopefully with good health.”
