Current:Home > MarketsHerb Kohl, former US senator and owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, has died. He was 88-LoTradeCoin
Herb Kohl, former US senator and owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, has died. He was 88
View Date:2024-12-23 21:09:08
Herb Kohl, a former Democratic U.S. senator from Wisconsin and former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team, has died. He was 88.
His death Wednesday was announced by Herb Kohl Philanthropies, which did not give a cause but said he died after a brief illness.
“More than anything, Herb loved Milwaukee and Wisconsin, and that is where he chose to live out his days,” Kohl’s foundation said in a statement. “He touched an incalculable number of lives, and those who love him would remark that he is among the most decent people to ever walk the earth.”
Kohl was a popular figure in Wisconsin, purchasing the Bucks to keep them from leaving town, and spending generously from his fortune on civic and educational causes throughout the state. He also used his money to fund his Senate races, allowing to him to portray himself as “nobody’s senator but yours.”
In the Senate, a body renowned for egos, Kohl was an unusual figure. He was quiet and not one to seek credit, yet effective on issues important to the state, especially dairy policy. He was one of the richest members of the Senate, and the Senate’s only professional sports team owner.
Kohl was born in Milwaukee, where he was a childhood friend of Bud Selig, who went on to become commissioner of the MLB. The two roomed together at the University of Wisconsin and remained friends in adulthood.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1956, Kohl went on to earn a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University in 1958, and he served in the Army Reserve from 1958-64. He helped grow the family-owned business, Kohl’s grocery and department stores, and served as company president in the 1970s. The corporation was sold in 1979.
Kohl also got into Wisconsin politics in the 1970s, serving as chair of the state Democratic Party from 1975 to 1977.
In 1985, Kohl bought the Bucks for $18 million.
“I am pleased, happy and delighted,” he said at a news conference. “The Milwaukee Bucks are in Milwaukee and they are going to stay in Milwaukee.”
The team was in the middle of its sixth straight winning season when Kohl bought it, and it went on to post winning records in the first six full seasons with Kohl as owner, before stumbling through most of the 1990s. The team improved in the late ’90s and early 2000s. In 2006, Kohl, owner of the small-market Bucks, was one of eight league owners to ask NBA commissioner David Stern to implement revenue sharing.
He eventually sold the team in 2014 to New York billionaires Wes Edens and Marc Lasry. He contributed $100 million toward construction of Fiserv Forum to replace the aging Bradley Center arena, helping ensure the team would remain in Milwaukee. Taxpayers contributed another $250 million. The arena opened in 2018. Three years later, Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks past the Phoenix Suns to claim the NBA championship, the team’s first since 1971.
Kohl’s civic commitments extended well beyond keeping professional basketball in Wisconsin. He donated $25 million to the University of Wisconsin to help fund construction of the Kohl Center, home to the school’s basketball and hockey teams. It was the single largest private donation in university history.
“I was very happy to be in a position to help build a first-rate, state-of-the-art sports arena,” Kohl once said. “I think it cements the university’s reputation as one of the premier athletic programs in the Big Ten and the country.”
He also used his own money to fund the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation, which donates money for scholarships and fellowships to students, teachers and schools in Wisconsin.
In 1988, Kohl decided to run for the Senate, following the announcement that Sen. William Proxmire was retiring, and defeated then-state Sen. Susan Engeleiter, the Republican candidate. He won reelection in 1994, 2000 and 2006. His considerable fortune helped scare away the Republican Party from mounting a serious challenge in 2006.
Kohl never accepted a pay raise in the Senate; he drew a salary of $89,500 every year, the same pay he got when he entered the Senate in 1989, returning the rest to the Treasury Department.
In the Senate, Kohl tended to home state interests. He opposed the Northeast Dairy Compact, a program opposed by Midwestern dairy farmers, and helped prevent it from being renewed in Congress. Kohl was instrumental in coming up with a replacement program, the Milk Income Loss Contract, which paid dairy farmers cash when prices fell below a certain level; the program especially helped Wisconsin dairy farmers.
As the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations agriculture subcommittee, which controls the budget of the Department of Agriculture, Kohl had a strong say on farm policy. He was also the top Democrat on the Senate Aging Committee and the Judiciary antitrust subcommittee. Kohl served as chair of all three panels when Democrats were in the majority.
Kohl didn’t mind doing things in the Senate without much credit. As Congress became more and more partisan, the diminutive Kohl almost seemed to be a throwback to another era.
“I am a person who does not believe in invective,” he once said. “I never go out and look to grab the mike or go in front of the TV camera. When I go to work everyday, I check my ego at the door.”
Kohl’s moderate temperament was matched by his voting record.
In 2001, he was one of just a dozen Democratic senators to vote for President George W. Bush’s tax cuts, but he voted against the cuts in 2003. He also voted to authorize military force against Iraq in 2002.
He was succeeded by Democrat Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin’s first female senator and the Senate’s first openly gay member.
Kohl, who never married, said that being single gave him time to balance the demands of life as a senator and owner. A sign on his Senate office desk said: “The Bucks Stop Here.”
___
Former AP reporter Frederic J. Frommer in Washington, D.C., was the primary writer of this obituary. AP reporter Todd Richmond reported from Madison, Wisconsin.
veryGood! (82753)
Related
- Man waives jury trial in killing of Georgia nursing student
- The UAW won big in the auto strike — but what does it mean for the rest of us?
- Louisville, Oregon State crash top 10 of US LBM Coaches Poll after long droughts
- Houston Astros set to name bench coach Joe Espada manager, succeeding Dusty Baker
- New wildfires burn in US Northeast while bigger blazes rage out West
- 76ers guard Kelly Oubre Jr. struck by vehicle while walking, expected to miss major time
- SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher: AI protection was nearly 'deal breaker' in actors strike
- 2 arrests, dozens evacuated from apartment fire possibly caused by fireworks, authorities say
- Lululemon, Disney partner for 34-piece collection and campaign: 'A dream collaboration'
- Over 30 workers are trapped after a portion of a tunnel under construction collapses in India
Ranking
- Bev Priestman fired as Canada women’s soccer coach after review of Olympic drone scandal
- 76ers’ Kelly Oubre Jr. has a broken rib after being struck by vehicle that fled the scene
- College football Week 11 grades: Michigan misses mark crying over Jim Harbaugh suspension
- Constitutional challenge to Georgia voting machines set for trial early next year
- Family of security guard shot and killed at Portland, Oregon, hospital sues facility for $35M
- Which restaurants are open Thanksgiving 2023? See Starbucks, McDonald's, Cracker Barrel hours
- 'Fellow Travelers' is a queer love story with highs, lows, tops, and bottoms
- Jon Batiste announces first North American headlining tour, celebrating ‘World Music Radio’
Recommendation
-
Multi-State Offshore Wind Pact Weakened After Connecticut Sits Out First Selection
-
Vatican monastery that served as Pope Benedict XVI’s retirement home gets new tenants
-
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce Draw Cheers During Dinner Date in Buenos Aires
-
Millions of Indians set a new world record celebrating Diwali as worries about air pollution rise
-
Atmospheric river to bring heavy snow, rain to Northwest this week
-
Fantasy football waiver wire Week 11 adds: 5 players you need to consider picking up now
-
Floods kill at least 31 in Somalia. UN warns of a flood event likely to happen once in 100 years
-
Gordon Ramsay and Wife Tana Welcome Baby No. 6