John Gromowsky and his three brothers were raised in Kansas City by parents who model the behavior of serving others. Whether volunteering to lead church and school activities, fostering children, preparing meals at a soup kitchen, or delivering food to seniors through Meals on Wheels, John’s parents always gave back to the community.

John’s parents also showed the value of hard work. They started a small print shop and built it into a business that supported their family and the families of their employees. When John and his siblings were old enough, they started working in the family business, helping customers, sweeping floors, and cleaning print presses at the end of the day. John worked for his parents until he went away to college. The union print shop continues to be a fixture in the Waldo neighborhood of Kansas City, as it approaches sixty years in business.

The values John learned from his parents were reinforced at Rockhurst High School, which strives to create “men for others” who are committed to justice through service. An example of the service is the weeklong Senior Service Projects that require students to perform service activities during the spring of their final year. During his senior year, John volunteered in the classrooms at Genesis School, helping students to improve their reading and math skills.

For college, John chose to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point. It is widely considered to be one of the premier leadership institutions in the United States, where the mission is to create leaders of character who are dedicated to a lifetime of service to the country. Upon graduation, John was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Army. Before shipping off to South Korea for a two year tour of duty on the DMZ, John completed Ranger School, Airborne School, and the Mortar Platoon Leader Course at Fort Benning, Georgia. John was later stationed with “The Old Guard” in Virginia, where he honored those being laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery and conducted ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. During his time in the Army, John’s performance earned him promotions to jobs with increasing levels of responsibility—from platoon leader, to executive officer where he was second in charge of a 130-soldier infantry company, and finally to the Director of Plans, Training, Mobilization, and Security responsible for operations on three Army posts in the Washington, D.C. area.

While John was stationed in Virginia in 1993, his cousin was murdered in a drive-by shooting back in Kansas City. The shooter did not know John’s cousin. He just killed for sport. The murder factored into John’s decision to leave the Army and go to law school. After graduation from DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, John returned to Kansas City and served as a law clerk for Judge John O’Malley in the Jackson County Circuit Court before beginning his first of two stints at the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office. In the prosecutor’s office, John has held positions as the Jackson County Drug Task Force Prosecutor, the KCPD Central Patrol Division Community Prosecutor, and, currently, as an attorney in the Violent Crimes Unit, prosecuting murder cases and other crimes of violence.

In between turns in the prosecutor’s office, John spent almost sixteen years as a defense lawyer, primarily representing people charged with crimes in federal courts. His law practice included trial work and appeals, even filing briefs in the United States Supreme Court. Because of John’s training and the quality of his representation of the accused, federal judges in the Western District of Missouri, the District of Nebraska, and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals appointed John to defend people in death penalty cases.

John has received many awards and accolades for his work as an attorney, but what he is most proud of are his three daughters, who he has helped raise with his wife of twenty years, Stacy.

Throughout his adult life, John has continued to be of service. He served on public safety committees in the community and held leadership positions within a local bar association. He also coached his daughters’ various soccer, basketball, and softball teams, and served on the school board and the athletic committee while they were in elementary school.

John now asks for your vote to allow him to continue his service to the community as the Jackson County Prosecutor, a position John has the integrity, leadership, and experience to do right.