Hamer Shafer never forgot his humble beginnings

MUNCIE -- Hamer Shafer, who rose from a delivery boy job at what would become Muncie Power Products to run the company for a half-century -- becoming in the process one of Muncie's greatest philanthropists -- has died.

Shafer, 93, died Wednesday morning at Westminster Village.

Friends and colleagues remembered Shafer -- who is survived by his wife, Phyllis, two daughters and other family members -- as a man who shied away from the spotlight even as he gave business and educational opportunities to many.

Terry Walker, chairman and chief executive officer of Muncie Power Products, recalled how friends had to persuade the Shafers to agree to have Shafer Tower, the bell tower at Ball State University, named after them.

"The tower had been talked about, but they had both vetoed that because it was too pretentious," Walker said. "We convinced them that something would be built with the Shafer name, why not choose something and see it being built and see the impact?"

The Shafers were on hand for the April 2002 dedication of the tower.

Thomas Kinghorn, vice president for business affairs and treasurer at Ball State, called the tower "an icon on the Ball State campus. (Shafer) and Phyllis were involved in every major initiative the university has pursued for years. He was a contributor and a leader.

"When I heard (that he had died), I thought, 'This is a very sad day for the community. He's a guy who will really be missed.'"

Walker and attorney Jon Moll, a friend who has acted as legal counsel for Muncie Power Products, said Shafer's modest beginnings had an influence on his entire life.

"He was a very humble person because he came from a humble background," Moll said. "He was the type of person who would want to pass credit to someone else."

Shafer's career is a Horatio Alger story of a business leader who springs from modest beginnings. In 1935, a Chicago businessman named Lou Conne came to Muncie and founded a company called Muncie Parts Manufacturing -- which decades later would become Muncie Power Products -- and hired Shafer as its first employee.

"Hamer washed his car, made deliveries, packed orders, he did it all," Walker said. "As the company grew, they hired some other folks."

In recognition of those beginnings, Shafer was given the Muncie Boys Club Horatio Alger Award in 1977.

Conne died in 1953, and Shafer and Conne's daughter formed a partnership that lasted until she died in 1966, when Shafer assumed control of the company. He formed a partnership with a friend, local accountant Ralph Whitinger.

"They put in what they called their own private stock market," Walker said. "They offered chances to buy stock in the company to some key people, and he and Phyllis gifted some stock. When we sold the company (to Italy-based Interpump Group) in 1999, Hamer and Phyllis owned only 25 percent."

The Shafers thus gave loyal and trusted employees a chance to control the company -- and their own careers.

"All he ever wanted to do was give people opportunities," Walker said.

The Shafers have been generous donors not only to Ball State University but Ivy Tech Community College and the Youth Opportunity Center, the local facility for housing and treatment of troubled juveniles. The YOC's Web site notes the Shafers were to donate matching gifts of up to $100,000 in 2006 and 2007.

The Shafers donated $1 million to Ball State as recently as the school's 2008 Ball State Bold campaign. The two had been awarded Ball State's President's Medal of Distinction and Beneficence Award -- the latter in 1978 -- and were inducted into the College of Business Hall of Fame.