RIPE Larry A. Lunsford

Rotary Club of Kansas City-Plaza, Missouri

Lunsford attended what is now Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, on an academic scholarship and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting. He first encountered Rotary when he received a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship to spend the 1981-82 academic year at the University of Newcastle in Australia.

As a certified public accountant, Lunsford spent seven years working for the accounting firm Arthur Young and its successor, Ernst & Young. He joined the family-owned business Bernstein-Rein Advertising in 1990. He is the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer. He has served on the boards of the Kansas City Spirit Festival and the Kansas City chapter of Variety – the Children’s Charity, and he served as director of a local bank and as treasurer of the Epilepsy Foundation for the Heart of America Region. He has also served on Truman State University’s alumni and foundation boards and received the university’s Distinguished Service Award.

Lunsford joined the Rotary Club of Kansas City-Plaza in 1991 and has served as district governor (2001-02), RI director (2013-15), and trustee of The Rotary Foundation (2021-25, vice chair 2024-25). He has served on numerous RI committees, including chairing the Executive Committee, the Membership Growth Committee, and the Nominating Committee for President of RI. He has also chaired The Rotary Foundation’s Executive, Finance, and Participant Experience committees.

Lunsford has been awarded The Rotary Foundation’s Distinguished Service Award and its Citation for Meritorious Service and the RI Service Above Self Award. He and his wife, Jill, have two children and one grandchild. They are Major Donors, Bequest Society members, multiple Paul Harris Fellows, Benefactors of The Rotary Foundation, and Sustaining Members.