April 8, 1999
A native of Davenport, Iowa, Meyer earned a B.A. from Yale University and a law degree from Harvard. After five years in practice as an attorney, he served as president and CEO of Grumman American Aviation Corp. from 1966 to 1974. He then joined Cessna Aircraft Co., the world's leading manufacturer of general aviation airplanes, as its executive vice president in June 1974. He was named chairman and CEO a year later.
Among the many honors Meyer has received throughout his career, some of the most meaningful to him are recognition of his work as the creator of the 21st Street Training Program in 1990. This comprehensive academic, personal and on-site vocational skills training program for inner-city Wichita residents guarantees jobs to those who complete the program.
Under his guidance, the 21st Street Program has grown into a nationally recognized model for the nation's Welfare-to-Work initiative. In 1991, it received Harvard's George Dively Award for Corporate Public Initiative, and on Nov. 1, 1997, President Clinton was the keynote speaker at the dedication of the program's new campus.
Meyer is a commercial, instrument-rated pilot with more than 14,000 hours of flight time, is type-rated in all models of the Cessna Citation business jet, and regularly flies as pilot in command. He was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame in 1996 and was named Kansan of the Year in 1998.
Meyer is a director of the Public Broadcasting Service, Western Resources Inc., and a member of the board of trustees of Wake Forest University. He and his wife Helen have five children.
The J. A. Vickers Sr. Memorial Lecture Series was established in 1969 by the Vickers family of Wichita through a gift to the Kansas University Endowment Association in honor of one of the pioneers of the oil industry in Kansas. The series was created to enable the university to bring prominent citizens to campus to debate or discuss subjects vital to maintaining a free political and market society.
Robert F. Vickers Sr. administered the Vickers Trust from 1961 to 1995 and coordinated the lecture series for more than two decades. When he died in 1995, the series was renamed to honor both father and son.
The Vickers' gift established this lecture fund at the KU Endowment Association, an independent, nonprofit organization that serves as the official fund-raising and fund-management foundation for the University of Kansas. The series is now run by the KU School of Business.