A Kansas icon, A.B. Hudson, has left more than $60 million to the Shriners Hospitals for Children, the largest donation in the organization’s 90-year history.
Hudson’s daughter, Michele Rothe, and other family members, as well as friends and colleagues, will gather in St. Louis Saturday for special ceremonies, which will include renaming the St. Louis hospital in Hudson’s honor.
Hudson, widely known in Kansas as a rancher, businessman, entrepreneur, inventor and benefactor, died in 2008 at age 84 at his home in Wichita Falls, Texas. He was a lifetime member of the Shriners International fraternity and a member of his chapter’s mounted patrol. He traveled the country, California to the White House, with his beloved horse, Hobo.
“It humbles us to know that someone of Mr. Hudson’s accomplishments had the lifetime desire to leave his estate to Shriners Hospitals for Children,” said Douglas E. Maxwell, president and CEO of the international pediatric hospital system. “This is the largest single gift any one donor has given to our hospitals, and it’s perfectly fitting that we name out St. Louis hospital in his memory.”
Hudson began working with his brothers after school at age 7. As a partner in Hudson Oil Company, which was later sold to Koch Oil, he became a full-time employee at 16. In 1958, he founded his own companies, Workingman’s Friend and Highway Oil, which grew to more than 700 employees.
At one time, Hudson was one of the largest landowners in Kansas, and one of the largest independent cattlemen in Kansas and Texas for many years.
In addition to supporting Shriners Hospitals for Children, Hudson funded rebuilding churches, supported museums and created a foundation to build new homes for tornado victims in Greensburg.
Late Shriner leaves $60M gift
