Kevin Koenig's spirit lives on in new facility
By David Perry, Executive editor -- Furniture Today, December 2, 2001
The news hit with stunning force: Kevin Koenig is dead.
All kinds of news flows into the editorial department at Furniture/Today. Sometimes it is expected. Sometimes it is shockingly unexpected, like this news from our retail editor.
My first reaction was denial: There must be some mistake. But a look at the obituary in The Miami Herald removed all doubt. There, in black and white, was the story of Kevin's life … and his death.
A voice-mail message from Kevin's brother, Keith, left on my phone over the long Thanksgiving holiday, provided some perspective. Kevin was no longer suffering, Keith said. "He is in no pain anymore," he said. "He was in a lot before."
Keith also said that Kevin, "a very devout Catholic, is enjoying eternal joy." Keith's voice was strong, but tinged with sadness. "I will miss my dear brother greatly," he said.
But Keith also talked about the future. He said he was looking forward to the events of this week, when we at Furniture/Today will be honoring Keith and Kevin as our Retailers of the Year. We will be in South Florida for our Leadership Conference, which includes a tour of City Furniture's new 660,000-square-foot complex in Fort Lauderdale.
Our awards ceremony for the Koenig brothers will now be a salute to the things they accomplished together, and a tribute to Kevin's unique contributions.
Like a lot of you, I didn't know Kevin well. I didn't know that he suffered from poor health for years. That's one of the things I found out about him only after his death. Another was that he was a major contributor to charities connected to the Catholic church, and to other charities.
Over the years, Kevin quietly suffered from heart disease, heart attacks, gastrointestinal problems and other illnesses that kept him off the road and close to home. He was the invisible face of the business. Keith has long been the visible face of City Furniture.
Keith remembers his brother, who founded City Furniture in 1971, as "a very bright guy" with whom he had "a very special relationship" as a brother and a business partner.
City Furniture's new warehouse, headquarters and showroom in Fort Lauderdale, which the company will dedicate to Kevin this week, are a testament to Kevin's vision, Keith said.
That's one of the things we can all feel good about this week when we tour the new facility. We will be admiring a facility that sprang from Kevin's vision. And we will be admiring a company that two special, extremely talented brothers built into one of the most successful retailers in the country.
Kevin's spirit will live on in all that he built. It will live on in Keith. And it will live on in all of us who are the richer for his dedication to our industry.
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