Kirby’s Way , livre ebook

KIRBY S WAY
KIRBY S WAY

H OW K IRBY AND C AROLINE R ISK B UILT THEIR C OMPANY ON K ITCHEN - T ABLE V ALUES
B Y A NGIE K LINK
Copyright 2012 by Purdue University. All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Klink, Angie, 1959- Kirby s way : how Kirby and Caroline Risk built their company on kitchen-table values / by Angie Klink. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-55753-614-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) ~ ISBN 978-1-61249-221-6 (epdf) ~ ISBN 978-1-61249-220-9 (epub) 1. Risk, Kirby, 1901-1989. 2. Risk, Caroline, 1912- 3. Kirby Risk Corporation~History. 4. Electric industries--Indiana--History. 5. Businesspeople--Indiana--Biography. I. Title. HD9697.A3U5453 2012 338.7 62130922772--dc23 [B]
2012016836

Also by Angie Klink
Divided Paths, Common Ground: The Story of Mary Matthews and Lella Gaddis, Pioneering Purdue Women Who Introduced Science into the Home
Cover design by Natalie Powell.
In memory of my father, Jack Lipp, Purdue electrical engineer, quiet man of integrity, cheerleader to a grateful daughter.
-for all the Sunday drives to see high-voltage transformers.
CONTENTS
Foreword
Preface
From the Banks of the Wabash
Common Denominator
Girl from Oat Fields
Kirby s Charge
World s Fair Wedding
Off to Work They Go
Florida Circus
Surplus Man
When Prefab Was Fab
Camp Kirby
God in Us
Open-Door Policy
Just Desserts
Wedded Bliss
Junior Achievement
Taking Risks
New Directions
Building
Distance Run
Without the Gentleman
Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come
A C HRISTMAS C AROL , C HARLES D ICKENS , 1843
But you were always a good man of business, Jacob, faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.
Business! cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!
FOREWORD

Kirby Risk always seemed to me to have the perfect name. My best memory of Mr. Risk (he ll always be Mr. to me) goes back to my high school years at Lafayette Jefferson High School. His son, Jim (James Kirby Risk III), was a starter on our basketball team and I was one of the managers. More than once after a basketball game, Mr. Risk told us kids to pile in his stretch Packard so he could take us to Miller s Fish House in Colfax, Indiana. Once inside Miller s, he d order fried everything-fried catfish with French fries, and onion rings. And just about the time everyone was finished eating, he d order another round. Kirby Risk loved food, and he especially enjoyed seeing others enjoy themselves in his company. That s just one of the many reasons he was such a success in Lafayette, as Angie Klink tells us in this interesting account of his life, Kirby s Way .
Kirby Risk knew an amazing number of people in Lafayette. As a result, as Angie notes, the Risk children grew up with a constant swirl of fans. Caroline, his wife and the mother of Carol, Sherry, Jim, and Julie, said it best, There s nobody else in the world like him.
Kirby s Way has many stories that illustrate what made this man and his family unique. He was a constant supporter of Lafayette Jefferson High School and Purdue University sports (everyone loved to get tickets to the Risk Football Saturdays). He lived and breathed Lafayette, traded with its businesses, and boosted its young people through his financial and moral support of Junior Achievement.
One of my favorite stories in the book revolves around Mr. Risk s interaction with a character that most twentieth-century Lafayette natives remember well. Known as the cone lady, Elinor Stingly worked for over fifty years at the Frozen Custard stand across from Columbian Park. She died in 2009 at age 101, but until the last five years of her life you could see her taking orders at the cone window every summer day. Elinor was so popular and worked to such a ripe old age that the Custard would hang a sign in the window on days she wasn t there that read I m not dead; I m just at the doctor.
Elinor and Mr. Risk didn t always see eye-to-eye on the subject of cones, however. Lafayette native Anne Price tells of the time Mr. Risk got so mad at the Frozen Custard that he refused to go up to the window to place his order and would instead send his kids. He would be out in the car, Anne recalls, but wouldn t go up. Something upset him; he wouldn t go up because it was just the principal of things.
What upset Mr. Risk was Elinor Stingly s refusal to mix flavors when she sold cones. In short, she simply wouldn t allow a scoop of chocolate to be mixed with vanilla. Those were the rules, like it or not. Elinor s rules of ice cream management just didn t fly with the Risk code of business where the customer is always right.
Mr. Risk passed on the Risk code of business to his son, Jim, who has been my close friend for fifty-seven years. Back in our Lafayette Jefferson High School days, Jim was picked by our classmates as most likely to succeed. We gave him a tough assignment, because it s not always easy for a son to follow his father in a successful business. Mr. Risk clearly taught Jim well, for under Jim s leadership, Kirby Risk Electric grew even bigger and better. It is important to give some of the credit for this to his wife, Mary Jo, who wisely rejected my advances in the first grade when we were both six. I m pretty sure she got the better deal when she married Jim many years ago.
There is a lot to read in Kirby s Way , stories that will be enjoyable to his family and friends and even for those who never met him. Mr. Risk never took a drink of alcohol in his life; he worked hard and played hard. In my experience, Jim seems to live life much like his father-always a positive person; he s loyal to his friends, his community, and his customers. Enjoy the many stories in the pages that follow.
-Brian Lamb
Founder and Executive Chairman of C-SPAN
PREFACE

KR University is an online educational opportunity for employees of Kirby Risk Corporation. Kirby Risk-the man-would have liked such a teaching advantage to help his people. Yet a more powerful KR University lies within the pages of this book.
To be a graduate of the school of Kirby Risk would mean one had earned a doctorate in kindness. Kirby, himself, held a PhD in caring, a master s in benevolence, and a bachelor s degree in noticing people. He used his degrees wisely, building his life and company with what he learned from his textbook, the Bible. Kirb, as he sometimes was called, was quietly quirky, bullheaded, and fun. He had a signature style, from his bow tie and invariable tardiness, to his frank remarks and night owl hours. He showed love to people by serving them food, particularly gallons and gallons of ice cream that burst the hinges of his basement freezer.
Petite Caroline was Kirby s impeccable partner. Their wedding at the 1933 Chicago World s Fair is the fabric of fairytales. Together they built a life and company that, today in our disjointed world, we long to emulate. Kirby conducted business on a handshake. He was friends with the men who headed companies in his community and with others he came to know across the United States. Kirby and Caroline knew how to knit deep and lasting friendships wherever they landed. Caroline was Kirby s loving co-player. She was the eloquent letter writer, the gracious dinner hostess, and the rock-solid manager of their four children, while handling the company payroll and much more from her office in the enclosed front porch of their home.
I extend a heartfelt thank-you to Jim Risk for asking me to write down some of his mother s memories of her life with Kirby. I thank dear Caroline, who turns 100 in 2012, for allowing me to read her journals and personal notes. She wrote lists, a condensed history of the company, and paragraphs recording snippets of the remarkable moments she spent with her husband, as if she knew one day their story would be told. In 2009, I began writing what was at first to be a simple record for the Risk family. The modest account blossomed to become this book-a broad brushstroke of lives so well lived.
Kirby noticed people. He made them feel important, and they loved him. In turn, people wanted to help Kirby. The relationships he built shaped the success of his life and his company. Jack Scott, former publisher of the Lafayette Journal and Courier and retired chairman of the Gannett Foundation, said, Kirby s got more compassion per corpuscle than any person I ve ever known.
Kirby was fearless in his conviction to help others and do right by them. He was forthright in deed and word. His presence alone could get things done. Kirby garnered respect.
Can people today live like Kirby and Caroline did, giving genuinely to those with whom they work, worship, and play, building relationships along the way? Or is the world too big, its people too mobile, too distrusting, and too self-centered? My hope is that after reading Kirby s Way , more of us, when going about our days, may experience the occasional lightbulb Kirby Risk moment.
More than likely, if J. Kirby Risk Jr. were still with us, he would not want this book to be published. In his day, he ducked out of a few banquet rooms when he heard he would be thanked publicly for his good work. Yet if he thought about the book s potential, he might see his and Caroline s narrative as a parable, like those stories Jesus told to convey spiritual truths. A parable compels readers to discover certainties for themselves. Perhaps Kirby would like to pass on his stories of