9 Over 90: Myron Wang

The elderly elite of Kansas City share their life journeys, what motivated them along the way, the lucky breaks and tough times, and advice for staying active and relevant in their later years.

Written by David Hodes
Interviewed by David M. Block, David Hodes and Pete Mundo

Myron Wang

Birth date: August 18, 1933, Age: 91

“Inches make the champion. Don’t give up. Go another inch to accomplish what you want to do. Don’t stop evolving. Don’t stop creating.”

On a coffee table in the living room of former furrier Myron Wang’s house sits a precious Chihuly glass sculpture. It’s just one of dozens of incredible works of art he and his wife, Nicole, have collected and displayed around the house, along with dozens of framed underwater photos from Wang’s 50 years of ocean diving. Wang’s photos have been seen in the pages of National Geographic and are a big part of the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science, where Wang also lectures. He says he’s given 5,000 images to the university over the years. “I’m still finding images that I never looked at,” he says.

As the fabulous and pricey sculpture is moved out of the way in preparation for his interview, Wang quips that “the most important thing in my wife Nicole’s life is that the sculpture doesn’t get broken.” 

“No,” she says. “The most important thing in my life that doesn’t get broken is you.”

Activity Programs

Not to worry. Wang has a rigorous athletic program. “I work out every day,” he says. “I do something, either walk or work with my trainer. We do weights and all kinds of exercises. On the off days, I walk. On Saturday and Sunday, I play golf. I used to have 10 partners for golf and now I’m down to two. We are the last of the Mohicans.”

Wang also exercises his mind every day, reading periodicals, the Wall Street Journal and books on the economy. He follows the stock market and his real estate investments. “I do a lot of things to stimulate my mind,” he says. He relaxes by going to the shooting range every so often, and has been a Chiefs season ticket holder “since day one,” he says.

The Fur Business

Wang was the second-generation owner and operator of Alaskan Fur, the brainchild of his father Phil Wang and three other partners who operated a wholesale fur business out of New York in 1920 before moving it to Kansas City in 1926 as a retail business. The first Alaskan Fur was downtown, and a second location was added at the Plaza in 1962. The Alaskan Fur flagship salon opened in 1979 at 90th Street and Metcalf in Overland Park.

By the mid-1980s, there was also an Alaskan Fur salon in the local Jones Store, along with fur salons in 11 Bonwit Teller stores across the country.

The company stood out from other furriers in part by offering customers climate-controlled storage vaults and a fur cleaning process invented by Alaskan that not only cleaned furs but also revitalized their natural oils. 

In March 2022, the company was sold to a group led by John Hanlon and Tiara Peach, owners of St. Louis-based The Fur and Leather Centre. They kept the Alaskan Fur name, and Wang, 88 at the time, retired.

“When I went into the business, I was going to get an MBA at Harvard,” Wang says. “My dad had a heart attack that June and he asked me in September 1962 if I would mind working in the business a year, delaying my trip to Harvard. I said sure. And he died two months later. I was stuck with this little business downtown with 13 competitors around me.”

The first year, Wang tripled sales. “That was the biggest challenge in my life,” he says. “Had I gone to Harvard, I would have gone on to Wall Street or to a big bank like J.P. Morgan or some big finance company because that’s where my mind was.”

He says he never thought much about all of that competition. “I just did what I thought we should do to make our business successful. We’d make our plan and work it.” 

Today, that’s one of his mottos: Create a plan and work it. Another one is: If you can’t get someone to cooperate to do something, then just do it yourself.

Wang says working the plan to sell Alaskan Fur to the Fur Centre in St. Louis was like losing a friend. “You work for 68 years in a business and one day, you don’t go to work,” he says. “It’s a big shock. But I got over it pretty fast.”

Passion for Photography

Now it’s his 50-year passion for underwater photography that keeps both he and his wife active, traveling to the Philippines, New Guinea, Australia, the Solomon Islands, the Red Sea or Chuuk Lagoon. They’ve gone to 63 countries in all, and at the end of 2024, they plan on an African safari. “I shot underwater fish on the move for years, but I’ve never shot many animals above water,” he says. “So I got on artificial intelligence sources to see exactly the mystique of shooting lions, tigers and elephants and things like that. It’s a hunt, but you don’t kill anything. You catch it on celluloid.”

Secrets to a Long Life

One of Wang’s biggest regrets in his life was that he never got to meet his grandparents on either side, who died before he was born. But his regrets are few and far between. He’s lived a long life and witnessed so much change. “Like the computers and the cell phones,” he says. “Every day, I think, ‘What if my dad was alive and saw what I paid for my car?’ He would have another heart attack. It’s as much as he paid for his house.”

What’s the secret to a long and healthy life? “I think genes play a big part,” he says. “My mother’s family lived to very old ages. My father’s family lived to very young ages. So I got the luck of the draw because I got my mother’s genes, I guess. But I think attitude and your mindset plays a big part.

“I refuse to get old,” he says. “If I slouch, my wife punches me in the back and says stand up straight. She refuses to let me get old. I could wish for 50 more years, but I am just hoping for 10 more.”  

“Every day, I think, ‘What if my dad was alive and saw what I paid for my car?’ He would have another heart attack. It’s as much as he paid for his house.”

The post 9 Over 90: Myron Wang appeared first on Kansas City Magazine.