City leaders and state politicians joined friends, family and colleagues at Fiserv Forum on Friday to celebrate the generous life and profound legacy of
Herb Kohl.
Ironically, an event that placed the former senator, businessman, Milwaukee Bucks owner and philanthropist at the center of attention is something he would have vehemently opposed if he were alive. Which is why it was only fitting that a major winter storm swept the Milwaukee area Friday morning, keeping attendance at the public memorial service to just a couple hundred people. Kohl died on Dec. 27 at the age of 88.
"I think Senator Kohl ordered our weather today so that fewer people would fond over him," remarked former Milwaukee Bucks announcer
Jim Paschke, who served as emcee for the service, held by Herb Kohl Philanthropies and the Bucks.
"If Herb could see you all here today, I'm sure he would be so very, very angry," said Chuck Pruitt, a longtime friend of Kohl's and co-managing director of Milwaukee-based AB Data. "If not angry, then certainly super annoyed ... because of everything he did in business, in sports, in public service, in philanthropy, in friendship and family, he insisted it not be about Herb Kohl. It always had to be 100% about the customer, the family, the constituent, the person in need."
Pruitt was one of five people -- all members of the senator's inner circle -- who delivered remarks during the service, including
Bud Selig, childhood friend, former Milwaukee Brewers owner and commissioner emeritus of Major League Baseball;
Dan Kohl, nephew and director of stakeholder engagement for the Council of Jewish Women; David Axelrod, friend and former senior advisor to President Barack Obama; and JoAnne Anton, longtime colleague and friend and director of giving at Herb Kohl Philanthropies.
More than 50 of Kohl's family members -- spanning four generations -- were there, said Dan Kohl, having traveled from across the U.S. and internationally from Canada and Israel.Â
Also in attendance were elected officials Sen. Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, Gov. Tony Evers and his wife, Kathy Evers; state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Dallet, state superintendent Jill Underly, state Rep. Gretta Neubauer, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and his wife, Erica; District Attorney John Chisholm, Mayor Cavalier Johnson, and Racine Mayor Cory Mason and his wife, Rebecca. Other notable attendees included former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Bucks president Peter Feigin, Bucks co-owner Mike Fascitelli, former Bucks exec Alex Lasry, Greg and Steve Marcus of the Marcus Corp., and attorney David Gruber.Â
Each speaker shed light on a different facet or period of Kohl's 88-year life but there were several common threads woven throughout. The stories and remembrances they shared paid tribute to the "Herb Kohl Way," which, literally, is the name of the
walkway outside Fiserv Forum's main entrance honoring Kohl's personal $100 million contribution to the $524 million arena project. Originally, the Bucks had suggested honoring their former owner with a statue outside of the arena.
"My uncle declined saying, 'I'm just not a statue kind of guy,'" said Dan Kohl.Â
"The Herb Kohl way was always about staying humble and down to earth," he added. "The Herb Kohl way was about being generous and kind. The Herb Kohl way was about living a life full of good deeds and service. The Herb Kohl way was being the ultimate champion for the city of Milwaukee and for the state of Wisconsin."Â
In a world that's become increasingly divided, there's probably something we can all take away from the manner in which Herb Kohl lived his life and served his community. Here are three of those lessons from the memorial service:
Invest in people
From his closest friendships to his professional relationships, Kohl prioritized people.
"His joy was investing in other people's happiness," said
Axelrod.Â
This was evident in his lifelong friendship with Selig. The two met when they were just 6 years old growing up on Milwaukee's west side and were later fraternity brothers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They maintained their companionship for eight decades, until the very end of Kohl's life. In recent years, they met for lunch on a weekly basis: Thursdays at 11:45 a.m. at The Pfister Cafe -- one of Kohl's handful of regular haunts. Their final lunch together was just a few weeks ago.
"Every Thursday at 11:45 a.m., I'll be thinking of Herb and our lunches at the Pfister," said Selig. "I'm going to miss those lunches, and I'm gong to treasure them because I will always treasure all the times we’ve spent together over the past eight decades."Â
Selig was not the only friend Kohl carved out regular one-on-one time for. He and Chuck Pruitt developed their 40-year friendship over weekly breakfasts or lunches at The
Pfister, Ma Fisher's and Benji's Deli.Â
In the 1970s, Kohl purchased a ranch in Wyoming, "
mostly so he could share it with friends, family members and sometimes, people he had only recently met," said Dan Kohl.Â
His concern for others informed the way he interacted with employees during his time working for his family's Kohl’s Corp. grocery and department store business and later as owner of the Bucks.
"Herb was legendary for knowing each and every Kohl’s employee in grocery stores all across the state. He also made it his business to memorize the names of his husbands, wives and their children. After selling the Bucks, once the team’s future in Milwaukee was secured, Herb gave large farewell bonuses to every Bucks employee and to every single Bradley Center worker," said Dan Kohl.Â
As a leader, Kohl's approach to serving others was part of what made him, as he described, "a reasonably unreasonable boss," said JoAnne Anton, who worked for Kohl for 30 years. The same high standards he had for himself, he also had for his team.
"He expected us to do what he did," she said. "Listen to people, what they really wanted. What they needed. To hear them and appreciate them. And in the end, to help make their lives better. After all, the customer is always right."Â
Don’t take yourself too seriously
Kohl was known for his self-deprecating humor and ability to make jokes at his own expense.
Some of his most favorite stories to tell friends and colleagues over and over were those in which he was the butt of the joke. One of those times, Pruitt recalled, was in 2011 after the Bucks lost a home game in the midst of a disappointing season. As fans filed out of the stands at the Bradley Center, Kohl made eye contact with one fan who had a scowl on his face and reached out to shake the man's hand. He responded by saying, "Senator, your team plays the way you vote: poorly."
"Herb laughed then, the first time that night, and he laughed many, many times when he told the story of himself after,"
said Pruitt. "He loved it when fans or constituents or servers at his favorite coffee shops reminded him that he was far from the
big shot others were writing about or talking about."Â
Stay humble
Kohl's ability to laugh at himself certainly kept his ego in check. He lived his life modestly, or as Axelrod put it, "He
knew how to make money, but he didn't much seem to care about it."Â
Kohl frequented the same few casual restaurants, drove "some generic sedan" and "
let's be honest, Herb's clothes were more Goodwill than Armani," Axelrod said.Â
At the core of Kohl's humility was a strong belief in what was truly important and how he measured success -- during his years as a politician, it wasn't the press conferences or Sunday talk show appearances, said Anton. Instead, it was in "
lives improved, in neighborhoods revived, in children fed, in families strengthened."Â
"He would rather get one genuine smile from a young child versus a hundred standing ovations in an arena like this here today," she said.Â
Kohl founded the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation in 1990 to disburse grants to Wisconsin students, teachers and schools. Since its inception, the foundation has awarded nearly $18.5 million in grants and scholarships to more than 7,670 people. Despite the profound mark he made as a philanthropist, Kohl always upheld a less-is-more mentality. So much so, said Anton as she began her remarks, she could almost hear him repeating a familiar directive: "three lines."
"'That's all you need, that's all they need. That's all anyone ever needs,'" she said. "He would also be leaning over right now to me to say, JoAnne, everything has already been said."
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