Landon Rowland

Landon Rowland

President
Kansas City Southern Railway

Landon H. Rowland (May 20, 1937 in Fuquay Springs, NC – December 28, 2015 in Kansas City, MO) was the fifteenth president of Kansas City Southern Railway and a Kansas City philanthropist.

As a child, his family moved to Portsmouth, VA during World War II, then to Wilmington, DE when he was 13, after his father died. He started working after school around this time, which would impact his life in two important ways: he was exposed to the asbestos that ultimately would cause his death from cancer, but his family's struggles also gave him the drive to succeed and to be able to take care of others.

Rowland graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in English Literature, then from Harvard Law School with a JD in 1962. He married the former Sarah Fidler in 1959, and they had three children survive infancy: Liza, Matthew, and Joshua.

Rowland died on December 28, 2015, aged 78.