Keith W. Kogler: Message from the Light

To My Readers,  
 

Family

My wife, Rosemary, and I live in Sugar Land, Texas (southwest Houston). 

We have two sons and five grandchildren.  I have received a tremendous amount of encouragement and support from all of them.  With a background of finance and computer related sales for the past 20 years, my entire family (except for Rosemary!) was very surprised about my new career as an author.  However, after reading the book, they all understood the power of the message and the need to make it available to the public. 

As a side note, the book cover photo was always one of my favorites, but I knew it was the right one when my youngest granddaughter ("Peanut") chose it from a list of photos. 

I grew up in the unincorporated town of Claytonville, Illinois which had (and still has today) a population of approximately 90 people. It is a picture of small town America, planted in the middle of central Illinois corn country.  My family's deep roots there have given me a profound appreciation for the uniqueness of America—and a sense that this uniqueness is gradually becoming a thing of the past.

Our community’s ‘main street’ was a farm to market road, with a few cross-streets of family homes.  Life traveled at its own pace in this farming community, generally attuned to the rhythm of the seasons.

For about 50 years, my father, Lester William Kogler, managed the grain cooperative, which was the main enterprise of the town.  Many of the farmers in the area would truck in their harvest—corn, beans, etc.—to the grain elevator.  It would be weighed, stored, sold, and shipped to market, all under my father’s direction. 

My mother Doris Kogler was a traditional housewife.  She loved to cook, sew, and generally manage the daily activities of the family.  She worked as a bookkeeper before marrying my father, and she worked part-time at the US Post Office in Claytonville. Most days my father would walk the two blocks from the grain office to our house to have lunch with the family.

At one time, the town supported its own general store owned by the Ziegenhorn family.  Their history provides a glimpse into the spirit of Claytonville of yester-year.

Both myself and my sister Diane attended the consolidated high school in Cissna Park, a town of .7 square miles and a population of approximately 800 (both then and now), which is about 5 miles from Claytonville. My graduating class consisted of 33 students.

According to the 2000 census, 24.8% of the households in Cissna Park had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.  As is the case with many small towns in America, many of the younger generation move away, and the population of smaller communities are either not growing or in decline.

I had great pride in my first car, which I purchased at Rust Chevrolet in Cissna Park, just as my dad had purchased all of his cars from Rust Chevrolet. Buying a GM car from this dealership was a ritual—until now.  A family business since 1916, Rust Chevrolet is one of the 1,100 dealers forced to close under GM's restructuring plan.  It is a victim of changing times in America.  Rust Chevrolet has been Cissna Park's largest source of revenue for years. With 100 cars sold each year, it has generated half the town's annual sales tax. 

CBS Evening News did a feature story on the closing of Rust Chevrolet and its impact on the town in a July 11, 2009 feature story.  To view this, please click on the link below:

A Dealership at the Heart of a Town

The reporter on this story interviewed the mayor, Rick Baier. He was one of my best friends in school. Rick and his family own the local newspaper, which is the lifeline of community news and commentary.  As the story goes… 94 years of memories and an uncertain future for one small American town.

Following high school, it was off to college and grad school at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.  A CPA in the making…software salesman extraordinaire, and… author in formation…with 35 years of questing under his belt!

Blessings in the Light,

Keith

To view more pictures of Keith, his family, and much more, please visit Keith's Photo Gallery.