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Sporting Kansas City owner, Oklahoma State alumnus Neal Patterson dies

Neal Patterson, an Oklahoma native who co-founded Cerner Corp. and later became the principal owner of Sporting Kansas City, died Sunday. He was 67.

Cerner announced Sunday that Patterson died from unexpected complications from soft-tissue cancer.

Patterson grew up on his family's farm in Manchester, Oklahoma. He attended Oklahoma State, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in finance and master’s degree in business administration.

He founded Cerner, a health information technology company, with Cliff Illig and Paul Gorup in 1979. The Kansas City, Missouri company now has more than 22,000 employees and earned $4.8 billion revenue in 2016.