Terry Jodok Kohler (born May 14, 1934) is a prominent American businessman, Wisconsin Republican Party leader, sportsman, philanthropist, and conservationist. He is known internationally in part because of his lifetime dedication to the sport of sailing.
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Kohler was born on May 14, 1934 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. His father was Walter J. Kohler, Jr. (1904-76), a sales executive at the Kohler Company, president of Vollrath, and a three-term Governor of Wisconsin. His mother was Marie Celeste McVoy Kohler (1900-1974), a Chicago socialite who had been married and divorced and had one child. Terry's sister is Charlotte Nicolette (1936-). The Kohlers divorced in 1946 and Terry was raised by his father at Windway, his parents' estate not far from the giant Kohler factory in the Village of Kohler.
In 1952, Kohler graduated from the Admiral Farragut Academy. In 1962 he received a bachelor of science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, majoring in industrial management. A year later he earned an MBA in the same field from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Kohler married Diana Prange (1932-1991) of Sheboygan in 1956, and they had three daughters: Leslie (1958-), Michelle (1960-), and Danielle (1964-). The couple divorced in 1976. In 1981, Kohler married Mary Simpson (1929-), the mother of four sons. Mary has been active in Terry's political, business, philanthropic, and conservation activities.
An outdoor sports enthusiast, Kohler raced sports cars in the mid-1960s, and spent six years on the National Ski Patrol. He is a lifetime member of Ducks Unlimited and the National Rifle Association. Kohler has sailed and raced sailboats for more than six decades, winning numerous trophies. He is a past Commodore of the Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation. He was also awarded the Nathanael Herreshoff Trophy by US Sailing in 2009, the organization's highest honor and award. [1]
Kohler joined the United States Air Force in 1955, receiving his Wings and his commission in Class 56-O as a second lieutenant on the day of his marriage in June 1956. Trained as a bombardier and navigator as well as a jet fighter pilot, Kohler spent three years flying Strategic Air Command B-47 jets all over the world. He left the Air Force in 1959 with the rank of Captain.
In 1947, Walter J. Kohler, Jr., Terry's father, became head of the Vollrath Company in Sheboygan, maker of a variety of smaller metal and enamel products for the food service industry. The company boomed, becoming a leader in stainless steel and aluminum kitchen and hospital wares. Terry Kohler's full-time association with the corporation began in 1963. In 1982, five years after his father's death, Terry became chairman of the board and chief executive officer.
Under Kohler's leadership, the company expanded dramatically. In July 1984, Lowell North sold his famous sailmaking company to Terry, and in in January 1989, North Sails and the Vollrath Company became separate corporations under the Windway Capital Corporation, a holding company. Another company within the Windway family is North Technology Group, largely in the marine manufacturing field, and builds sails, boats, masts, rigging, and accessories. It is the world's largest manufacturer of racing sails, including particularly the high technology fabrics of 3DL, 3Di, and TPT used in many products from America's Cup sails to skis, to snowboards, and to high altitude balloons. Today Terry is President and Chairman of the Board of Windway Capital Corporation, Chairman of North Technology Group, and is on the board at Vollrath.[2]
Kohler's grandfather and father had been Wisconsin Governors and staunch Republican Party (GOP) moderates. Kohler was active in the GOP for many years before attempting unsuccessfully, in 1980, to win the party's nomination for the United States Senate in 1980. Mary Simpson, soon to be his wife, was his campaign manager. Two years later, Kohler lost to Democrat Tony Earl in a gubernatorial election.
Kohler and his wife have been active in Republican Party matters on the local, state, and national level. In May 2002, Kohler was elected to the GOP National Committee, serving until mid-February, 2007. In 2004, he was a member of the Bush-Cheney Campaign Steering Committee. Since 1984 the Kohlers have been consistent and generous supporters of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.[3]
Mary Kohler is the Executive Director of the Charlotte and Walter Kohler Charitable Trust. Between 1998-2006, the Trust spent nearly $20 million. Top recipients included MIT, Lakeland College of Sheboygan (the 2010 Kohler lecture there was delivered by Gingrich), Nashotah House, the Rockford Institute, and the International Crane Foundation.
Kohler and his wife have been leaders in the largely successful efforts to save Trumpeter Swans, Whooping Cranes, and Siberian Cranes from extinction.[4] At one point the couple responded to an appeal by Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson to fly swan eggs from Alaska to Wisconsin in a company plane, and continued to do so for the better part of a decade. On a number of occasions they have also flown Whooping Crane eggs from Ft. Smith in the Northwest Territories of Canada to the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI. On another occasion, they brought eggs from Alaska to Michigan. The Kohlers also flew a company jet to the farthest reaches of Siberia and clear across Russia around the world to help Russians preserve the rapidly disappearing Siberian Crane. In recent years, they have been part of the ultra-light led Whooping Crane Recovery Project between Wisconsin and Florida. The couple wrote in 2007 that their experience in this field "has provided almost weekly excitement in our lives for nearly 20 years."[5] In 2009, they were awarded the Charles Lindbergh Award which "is given annually to individuals whose work over many years has made significant contributions toward the Lindbergh's concept of balancing technology and nature."[6]