Herb Kohler., who oversaw the expansion of his family’s plumbing and manufacturing business into a worldwide leader in the industry, while also becoming a prominent figure in the world of golf, died on September 3 in Wisconsin. He was 83.
Born in Chicago in 1939, Kohler first went to work for the family’s company, founded by his grandfather Michael Kohler in 1873, shortly after finishing college at Yale University in 1965. Four years after the death of his father, Herb Sr, in 1968, Kohler Jr took over as CEO and added the president’s title in 1974.
He served in both roles until 2015, when his son David became the fourth generation Kohler to run the company and Herb Jr. became the its executive chairman. During his time overseeing the company, Kohler grew the business from a $133 million operation to a firm that took in nearly $6 billion in annual revenue in 2015.
It was into his adult life that Kohler became passionate about golf, as a business and a recreation. He almost single-handedly turned Sheboygan County in his adopted home state of Wisconsin into a premier golf destination with the development of The American Club resort in 1981 and the building of a pair of 36-hole golf clubs – Blackwolf Run and Whistling Straits.
Blackwolf Run was the first piece of Kohler’s golf portfolio, opening in 1988. In 1998, a composite 18-hole course hosted the US Women’s Open. Ten years later, Kohler opened Whistling Straits, hiring Pete Dye to take an abandoned airfield located on the edge of Lake Michigan and turn it into a replica of a seaside links. The Straits course went on to host three PGA Championships (2004, 2010 and 2015), the 2007 US Senior Open and the 2021 Ryder Cup.
Kohler’s involvement in golf took on an international element in 2004 when he purchased the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews, Scotland. He also bought The Duke’s Course, a heathland layout outside of St Andrews.
Kohler’s passion for the game morphed into him becoming a course designer as well, helping build the 10-hole, par-3 Baths of Blackwolf golf course that opened in June last year. He also had plans to build an 18-hole public golf course on Kohler Co. property along the Lake Michigan shoreline in southern Sheboygan County.
His involvement in the business of golf earned him various accolades within the industry. In 2016, Kohler received the Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, which recognizes his “indelible mark on golf and the focus on the importance of environmental stewardship.” He was inducted into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019.