Dick Bond

Richard L. Bond(born 1936) is an American banker, attorney and a former Kansas State Senate president who resides in Overland Park.

Bond was born in Kansas City, Kansas. His parents moved to Johnson County, Kansas, later in 1936, when he was only a few months old. He graduated from the University of Kansas (KU) in 1957, and from the University of Kansas Law School in 1960. Dick and his wife Suzanne have two children. Their deep commitment to Kansas education caused Dick and Suzanne, both KU graduates, to donate $250,000 to establish a professorship at KU.

Prior to his senate service, Bond spent 25 years as top aide to three members of Congress from eastern Kansas and rejected opportunities for a congressional run himself, he returned home, becoming a banker instead. When his district's Senate seat opened, he finally decided to seek office, won, and rapidly emerged as a legislative power. He retained his modesty as he approached retirement, stating, “No one’s indispensable.” “They just think they are.”

Subsequent to his retirement from the legislature, he remained active in business and civic affairs, serving on the boards of many banks, trusts, foundations, commercial, industry, professional bar associations, and non-profit organizations.

Bond served in the state senate for 14 years, retiring in 2001 after four years as its president.

A fiscal moderate and prominent Republican, Bond endorsed House Minority Leader and Blue Dog Democrat Paul Davis for governor in 2014, over incumbent Republican governor Sam Brownback. His rationale for doing so was created by the state's fiscal difficulties brought on by Brownback's substantial tax cutting policies.In the 2018 general election, Bond endorsed Senator Laura Kelly, the winning Democratic candidate for governor, over Kris Kobach, the Republican Secretary of State.

Bond left his state capitol in much better shape than he found it — literally as well as figuratively. Thanks to his fiscal skills and precision characteristic of his long political career, Bond balanced interest accrued between the state's unclaimed funds and pension accounts to raise $40 million for the renovation of the Kansas capitol building in Topeka, the firstsince World War I. He called it, “the only thing I’ve done that will have lasting value and importance.” In his last term, he pushed particularly hard for policy changes including for higher legislative salaries and the reshaping of K-12 education. "Government is reactionary,” Bond said. “It just sort of reacts to crisis, and we never really lay out any kind of plans or direction.”

As Thomas Frank has described it in his best seller, "What's the Matter with Kansas?," the state has, in effect, a three-party system: conservative Republicans, moderate Republicans and Democrats. The Republican Right was especially infuriated with Bond for diluting a death penalty bill as well as ban on “partial birth” abortions. Bond's efforts killed "English-only" legislation, and even extended to the length that there would be a requirement of the state's students to become proficient in Spanish. Bond deftly retained the loyalty of enough Republicans to maintain effective control of the senate for most votes. In 1999, he persuaded even senators who had signed no-tax pledges to support an increase in gas taxes to fund a $12.6 billion highway bill. A senate Democrat recalls telling Bond that the exchange for seven crucial votes on the highway bill would be $50 million in local road improvements. Bond just leaned on his ally, Governor Bill Graves, and raised the funds. Bond always knew how many votes he controlled but, to increase his leverage, generally kept his own desires close to his vest.