LINC founding commissioner and former co-chair Jack Craft, whose many civic accomplishments as an attorney and community leader included heading the redevelopment of Kansas City’s iconic Union Station, died Dec. 2, 2025 at the age of 87.

John Charles Craft joined the LINC Commission in its first year in 1992, adding his service of Caring Communities to a long list of community work at the same time that he held great influence in Missouri politics in helping lead campaigns for John Danforth, Kit Bond and Richard Berkley, among others.

Craft and former LINC Commissioner Bailus Tate Jr. together served as co-chairs of the LINC Commission after the death of longtime LINC Chair Landon Rowland in 2015. Craft continued as Chair of the Commission after Tate’s death in 2020 until April 2021, and remained a commissioner until his death.

As his obituary noted, Craft embraced the challenges of finding solutions for tough problems, and that unique skill served LINC and its Caring Communities well.

Craft’s wish, shared by his family in his obituary, was that there not be a funeral, but that he be remembered with a visit to Union Station or the Ewing and Muriel Kauffman Memorial Garden.

Read his full obituary here.