38. George Kuhns

George Kuhns (1861-1926) was a prominent Des Moines businessman, radio pioneer, and booster of Iowa agriculture. He was born on an Illinois farm near the Mississippi River and graduated from high school in Clinton, Iowa. Kuhns entered Iowa Agricultural College (IAC, now Iowa State University) in 1880 with $50, but after paying his tuition, board, and books, he had $18 left for the year. Kuhns earned his way through three years at IAC laboring on road crews before becoming college president Seaman Knapp’s personal secretary. While at the college, Kuhns organized a subscription program to fund the construction of the institution’s first gymnasium. This experience led to Kuhns’ later involvement in the proposed construction of public auditoriums in Clinton, Muscatine, Cedar Rapids, and Des Moines.

Kuhns proposed the construction of these venues using proceeds from the sale of life insurance policies, a profession he joined in 1890 in Sioux City, which eventually lead him to the Banker’s Life Insurance Company in Des Moines in 1897. Kuhns worked his way up in the company to its presidency in 1916 where he initiated many business innovations which other companies quickly adopted, such as direct mail advertising. In 1924, Kuhns spearheaded the company’s purchase of a 500-watt radio station for use as an advertising tool and gave the first address on what he named with the call letters WHO. Kuhns and other executives used the station to educate the public about life insurance, but he also used it to promote the use of products made from Iowa’s oversupply of corn, hoping to raise crop prices and income for the state’s farmers. In 1925, a WHO promotion gave away a reported 25 tons of corn sugar to 500,000 listeners who wrote to the station requesting a free pound of the product. Kuhns then urged listeners to push congress to modify the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act to allow its use as an alternative to cane sugar.

Kuhns’ innovations grew the Bankers Life Insurance Company (now Principal Financial Group) into one of the largest life insurance companies in the nation and, according to Kuhns’ 1926 obituary in The Annals of Iowa, “helped Des Moines to become the great insurance center in the [Mid]West.” The following year, The Des Moines Register credited Kuhns for a nearly 12% increase in corn products manufactured in 1925. Despite the accolades for his business prowess, when Kuhns died unexpectedly at the age of 64, his estate was found to be worthless. Despite owning notes and stocks with an estimated face value of over $200,000, these proved mostly valueless, and his estate dwindled to $72,336 in assets against $184,250 in debts. Among his assets at the time of his death, Kuhns carried a $17,000 life insurance policy and he owned 3,191 bushels of corn valued at $1,600.