Kerry Livgren is the reason Kansas had so many hit songs. He penned all of Kansas' biggest hits. IMHO he's the greatest rock composer of our time, bar none, full stop. It's especially apparent when you listen to some of the "rock symphonies" the man composed--"Song for America", for example, or "The Pinnacle", songs which ran more than six or seven minutes at a time when it was a feat to cram more than 45 minutes of music onto two sides of a 33.3 RPM LP.
The music of Kansas is the soundtrack of much of my SF and, in fact, much of my life. Get well soon, man.