Harold Roe Bennett Sturdyvant Bartle ( June 25, 1901 – May 9, 1974 ) was a businessman, philanthropist, executive, and professional public speaker who served two terms as mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. After Bartle helped to bring the Dallas Texans American Football League team to Kansas City in 1962, owner Lamar Hunt renamed the franchise the Kansas City Chief’s after Bartle’s nickname “The Chief.”
Bartle was the only child of minister Samuel Dunn Bartle and Ada Mae Roe. The family was musical and at age thirteen Harold was playing organ at his father’s church. Between1916 and 1920, Bartle attended Fork Union Military Academy. It was there he became a championship debater. He attended the University of Chattanooga and after earned a law degree from Hamilton college, a Chicago based correspondence school.
Bartle met Margaret Ann Caroline Jarvis and they were married in St. Joseph where his father had taken a pastorate position. The Bartles had one child. Margaret Roe Bartle. Bartle was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1920 and worked for a law firm there and was also the Lebanon prosecuting attorney from 1920-to 1922. He realized there that his gifts were as an organizer and promoter and that he didn’t want to be an attorney. Bartle had supervised a Boy Scout troop in Lebanon and in 1923-24 accepted a position as the executive of the Cheyenne Council of Boy Scouts of America in Casper, Wyoming. From 1925 until 1928, he held a similar position in St. Joseph and from 1928 – 1955, he was the Scout Executive of the Kansas City Area Council.
In 1925, Bartle created the Tribe of Mic-O-Say, an honor camper program, in Agency, Missouri, at Camp Brinton. In 1935 it moved to Camp Geiger in St. Joseph. Bartle’s nickname, “The Chief” came from his time as a boy scout executive. While a scouting executive, Bartle also invested in businesses and made investments and served on boards for many corporations. When Harry Truman asked him to become the regional director of the Economic Stabilization Agency, Bartle had to resign from 57 boards to avoid conflicts of interest. As a professional public speaker and by the time he ran for mayor he was making over 200 speeches a year.
Bartle contributed to many charities and non profits. He once said he was three Bartles. “The Bartle who makes money, the Bartle who gives it away and the Bartle who works for free.” In 1955 Bartle ran for mayor. He served two terms as Kansas City’s mayor and accomplished many important things for Kansas City while he was in office. Including, removing political influence for city hospitals, overhauling the city tax structure, supporting the advancement of African American police officers. He also oversaw the initial construction of the Kansas City airport and a nearby freeway, and moved the Chief’s to Kansas City!
