MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (SDJW)– While Kohls Department Store co-owner Herb Kohl served in the U.S. Senate for four terms, a sign on his door read “The Bucks Stop Here” – a pun on Harry Truman’s old saying that combined the Jewish senator’s political career with another great love. Kohl also was the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team.
One of the richest men in the Senate, and the only one who owned a professional sports franchise, Kohl, a Democrat, was known for his unassuming demeanor and his devotion to Wisconsin and his home city of Milwaukee. On the agriculture subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he protected the interests of Wisconsin dairy farmers. His financial contributions led to the construction of the Bucks’ home sports arena known as Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee and to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Kohl Center, which is the venue for the Big-Ten university’s basketball and hockey teams.
Kohl died Wednesday, December 27, at age 88 after a brief illness, according to a spokesperson for Herb Kohl Philanthropies. Born to Polish Jewish immigrant Max Kohl and his wife, Russian Jewish immigrant Mary Hiken, Herb was raised in Milwaukee. He attended the University of Wisconsin as an undergraduate where his roommate was his childhood friend Bud Selig, the future commissioner of Major League Baseball. Kohl earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School and utilized his financial acumen developing retail stores and investing in real estate and the stock market.
His father had established Kohl’s Food Markets, a grocery store chain. With his father and brother Frederic, Herb Kohl expanded the family’s holdings to include Kohl’s department stores. In 1970, Herb became the organization’s president and CEO, remaining in that position until the company’s sale in 1978 to BATUS Inc. From 1975 to 1977, Kohl also served as chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic party.
Kohl purchased the Milwaukee Bucks for $18 million in 1985, prompted by a desire to keep the team in Milwaukee. He retained ownership for 29 years, selling it for $550 million in 2014.
He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1988, and reelected in 1994, 2000, and 2006. He announced he wouldn’t seek reelection in 2012, clearing the way for his successor Tammy Baldwin. “I’ve always believed it is better to leave a job a little too early than a little too late,” Kohl said at the time.
For part of his tenure, Kohl and Russ Feingold served together as Wisconsin’s senators, both men members of the Jewish community. Similarly, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both Jewish, served together as California’s two representatives in the U.S. Senate.
Zachary Goldberg, who was Kohl’s communications staff member in the Senate, once said that Jewish values, particularly the concept of tikkun olam – repairing the world – underscored much of Kohl’s life. “He was the definition of a mensch,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at the time of Kohl’s retirement.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World