Board Member: Terry Kohler

 

In recent years Terry Kohler has been very active in the Marriage Improvement process in this country, Having been involved deeply with Mark Gungor in the creation of national/international LAUGH YOUR WAY TO A BETTER MARRIAGE of Appleton WI. He has also been very active in the development of GREAT MARRIAGES FOR SHEBOYGAN COUNTY, the area where his major business interests are now located. He is also involved with a number of other Marriage improvement operations around the country.

 

Terry Kohler, 80, of Brule, Wisconsin, is President of Windway Capital Corp., a holding company with multiple subsidiaries:

 

Subsidiary Field Position

North Sails Group, Inc. Sails, spars & rigging Board Member

The Vollrath Co., LLC.  Misc. food service products  Chairman

 

Mr. Kohler has been associated with The Vollrath Co., LLC, since 1962, holding positions of President, and then Chairman and CEO, prior to its reorganization in January, 1989, when Windway Capital Corp., the holding company, was formed. 

 

Terry is a graduate of Admiral Farragut Academy of New Jersey.  In 1955 he joined the U.S. Air Force and was trained as a jet fighter pilot in Class 56-O.  He then spent three years as a B-47 combat crew member pilot, and was discharged from the Strategic Air Command in 1959 with the rank of Captain.  (He continued actively his flying in various aircraft including the Cessna Caravan, having recently given up flying Citations and a Bell 407 Helicopter).

 

Three years later, he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Management.  Terry earned his Master of Science degree in Industrial Management a year later in 1963 from the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management at MIT.    His thesis and research were in the area of business application of "large scale" digital computers in smaller companies.

 

In addition to teaching computer programming as a faculty assistant at MIT, he has taught Production Management at U. Wisconsin, Appleton, and was the first Business Executive in Residence at Lakeland College in the mid 1970's.

 

Terry Kohler is also an outdoor sports enthusiast, and raced sports cars in SCCA competition in the mid 1960’s.  He spent 6 years on the National Ski Patrol and is a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), River Edge Nature Center, and is a life member of Ducks Unlimited (DU) and the National Rifle Association (NRA).  Terry has been associated with Trout Unlimited (TU) for some years, and served on the Board of Directors of the Trout & Salmon Foundation for two decades. 

 

He has sailed and raced extensively for 60 years, and is also a past Commodore of the Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation (LMSRF).  He defended the Canada's Cup for the U.S. in 1978, sailing his boat, the A’gape.  In two successive years (1984 and 1985) was first in his section in the Chicago Mackinac and in 1992, sailing Cynosure, he was first to finish, first in class and first in fleet in the Chicago Mackinac Race.  He has competed in 37 Chicago Mackinac and 18 Bayview Mackinac races, as well as multiple SORC's.

 

Mr. Kohler is married to Mary Stewart Kohler.  Between them they have 7 grown children, and 13 grandchildren. They are active members of Grace Episcopal Church in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. 

 

Mary and Terry have been involved for over a decade with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in the Trumpeter Swan Recovery Project, collecting and flying swan eggs back from Alaska.  Additionally, they have been involved with the International Crane Foundation (ICF) and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USF&WS), flying whooping crane eggs for the International Whooping Crane Recovery Team from Ft. Smith, NWT, Canada, to Baraboo, WI, and Patuxent, MD.  They are currently very involved with the ultra-light led Whooping Crane Recovery Project between Wisconsin and Florida, and replacement of Whoopers in Louisiana.