PHOENIX -- The enduring legacy of Kevin "KT" Towers was immortalized on Friday by the D-backs as managing general partner Ken Kendrick was joined by team president & CEO Derrick Hall and Towers' widow, Kelley, to permanently name the suite in which he used to sit as "Kevin's Tower."
Towers passed away on Jan. 30 of this year at the age of 56 from thyroid cancer, but the "Gunslinger" will forever be remembered in Arizona.
"We wanted permanence. This was his home, and he spent every game here. We wanted a place where we could see his smile each and every day," Hall said during a speech in front of media and Towers' family and friends before letting Kelley uncover the plaque that details some of her husband's greatest achievements as "one of baseball's most respected general managers" and that will be a Chase Field staple from now on.
One of the entries on the plaque describes the way Towers embraced the globalization of the game by signing players from Brazil and Germany, as well as taking goodwill trips on behalf of the team to Mexico, Japan and the Dominican Republic.
Arizona hired Towers as its GM on Sept. 22, 2010, and the 2011 squad won the National League West before losing in five games to the Brewers in the NL Division Series.
"We did a lot of good work here," said Kelley, who also received a picture of herself and her late husband in Sydney for Opening Day 2014. "His fingerprints are still on the club, so that makes me feel good. I am looking at the D-backs, I see them in first place, and I know he had a lot to do with what's happening here. He is still here.
"Kevin made a lot of strides in baseball from when he was first named general manager. ... He did a lot with a little bit of money. ... He was a man that you could believe in, and he would come through, and he would be honest, and he would talk to everybody. It didn't matter if you were an usher or the president."
Towers' legacy encompasses not only what he did as a GM but the way he touched people's lives.
"His capacity for being joyous was unmatched with the work that he did and the people he surrounded himself with," said Kendrick. "He brought joy to his life and the life of others. You strive to be a person who could do that, and he was a great role model for that. We are still making him a 'proud dad' of some of his players."