Larry D. Horner, former trustee and life trustee of CMC, passed away on December 29. He joined the College’s Board in 1981 and was named a life trustee in 1985. During his tenure, he provided guidance to the College during its “Leaders in the Making” campaign and served as a member of the board affairs and executive committees as well as chair of the development committee. Horner supported the scholarly work of the College’s faculty as well as assisting students through the establishment of the Larry D. Horner Scholarship Fund.
Born in 1934 and raised in rural Kansas, he rose through the ranks of the accounting firm Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co. He joined the firm’s Kansas City, Mo., office after earning his accounting degree, with distinction, from the University of Kansas, and becoming a certified public accountant. He was elected to the partnership in 1964 and went on to head the Miami office before relocating to Belgium and Germany. Traveling extensively, he led the Frankfurt, Germany, location and also earned an Executive MBA from Stanford before becoming CEO of Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co. in 1984. He engineered the firm’s merger with Klvynverd Main Goerdler, forming KPMG Peat Marwick, and served as the combined company’s CEO.
Subsequent to his retirement from KPMG, Horner served as chairman of several private and public companies involved in finance, real estate, and manufacturing. His broad service on corporate boards included those of Clinical Data, Inc.; ConocoPhillips; UTStarcom, Inc.; New River Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Wire & Cable Specialties Corp.; and Atlantis Plastics, Inc.