Among his personal career highlights: Serving as Springfield mayor from 1995 to 2001, a time of downtown revitalization. He ran the city when new places, such as the Jordan Valley Ice Park, came to life, and older sites — including the Gillioz and the Landers theaters — were renovated.

But his greatest achievement, he said, was also one of the most controversial issues of his mayoral career. A Native American tribe envisioned Springfield as the next Atlantic City nearly 20 years ago, and he fought to prevent a $400 million casino.

“I did a lot of research (into the impact of casinos), and when (tribal members) came here to make their pitch to the city council, I asked them questions they couldn’t answer,” he said.

Gannaway majored in public administration at Missouri State, then earned a law degree at the University of Missouri. He was in the Army, and just 11 days after taking the bar, he shipped out for training and a subsequent tour in Vietnam. Near the end of his service, he sent résumés from the field. He got a job with Springfield attorney Jean Paul Bradshaw.

“I was able to work with him for two years before he passed away. He was like a father to me — even though for the first six months he didn’t even know who I was!”

The job brought him back to the city of his alma mater. He continues to cherish the bonds forged at Missouri State, especially with those in Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

“We used to go skiing every year, but they think we’re getting too old to ski. Now, a group of us goes fishing for three or four days on the Little Red River in Arkansas,” he said. “We’ll sit around and tell some of the same stories, only they get a little better; they’re enhanced every year, I would say.”

He recalled the formal courtship and the accompanying pinning ceremonies between his fraternity and their sorority counterparts — his wife, Charlene (’78), was a Sigma Sigma Sigma.

A Missouri Sate tradition

Gannaway is not the only member of his family with MSU memories. His granddaughter, Lea Gannaway, is now a fourth-generation Missouri State student. Lea’s paternal great-grandparents, grandparents and parents all met on campus.

“I’ve always aspired to come here,” Lea Gannaway, a senior public relations major, said. “I grew up watching the Bears, so coming here was meant to happen.”

The University was the place that helped her grandfather with his dream to become an attorney, a profession he chose at 8 years old. Now, more than 45 years into his career, he’s not ready to give up going to work at Gannaway & Cummings.

Gannaway — who, in one moment talks nonchalantly about driving himself to the hospital in the middle of the night while having a heart attack at age 32, and in the next, proudly looks back on the college roots his parents planted — will continue to hit the gym at 5:30 every morning and be at work two hours later.

“Will I retire? I’ve thought about it. But I like what I do; I like my clients, and I really can’t think of doing anything else. Sometimes I even come across something new!”