Merlin Karlock, one of the most influential businessmen, community leaders and philanthropists, has left an unmistakable impact and imprint on the Kankakee County community.
Karlock, the founder of Bourbonnais-based Municipal Trust & Savings Bank, a member of the board that would found Kankakee Community College and developer of a Bourbonnais country club and golf course, died Wednesday. He was 92.
“He could see the good in people and he believed in them,” said Cathy Boicken, today’s president of Municipal Bank. “Things changed over the years, and regulations have had a huge impact on tabletop deals, but to this day, there are times I think, ‘Merlin would have done this,’ and I go with it.
“He always kept extra cash in case a customer needed a loan over the weekend. He was willing to loan money and get the paperwork later,” she said.
Boicken said Karlock was also much more than someone who could accurately determine the financial well being of a business plan. He also saw what was inside a person. He was a leader in elevating women within his business.
“He saw the possibility in women before women were a strong voice in the working world,” she said. “Municipal Bank for years has been managed by women and he was proud of the fact that he had encouraged the many long-term women leaders in the organization to grow professionally.”
<strong>‘SO VERY INVOLVED’</strong>
Former Olivet Nazarene University President Dr. John Bowling knew Karlock about as well as any one person within the community. The two shared breakfast about three times a week, along with a few other people, at Blue’s Cafe on Kankakee’s westside.
The men were part of a group of about six who simply would get together and talk. They gathered for about 20 years.
“I can’t say how many conversations with him I had. He was so very involved in so many things that I don’t think many people even knew,” Bowling said.
He said Karlock was part of the ground floor who helped form Kankakee Community College.
Bowling said that Karlock was also a supporter of ONU, helping bring the Chicago Bears to Bourbonnais. He was so interested, Bowling said, that he traveled to Platteville, Wis., the Bears’ former training camp home, to see how the team impacted that region.
“He was plain-spoken. He had his opinions and convictions. We had a relationship were I could disagree with him and that was OK,” Bowling said. “He was perceived as this gruff guy, but he was far more complicated than that. He demonstrated great generosity.”
Bourbonnais Mayor Paul Schore said the impact Karlock had on the region and many of its organizations would be hard to calculate.
“He was such a tremendous businessman, a large property owner and love of agriculture,” Schore said.
Schore added one of Karlock’s key businesses, the Bon Vivant Golf Course and Country Club, had a huge impact on the region. He noted how Karlock’s vision of upscale housing led to the establishment of the Bourdeau subdivision.
“That subdivision took housing up another notch,” the mayor said.
Schore said Karlock and Bourbonnais had their disagreements, but those were never as large as they seemed.
“I had many conversations with him after that [the closing of the golf course],” he said. “I wish we could have worked things out because losing Bon Vivant was a definite loss for the village. I absolutely wish the golf course was still here.”
But, the mayor said, time heals many wounds.
“We managed to worked together just fine,” Schore said. “If Merlin believed in you, he would work with you. A lot of people benefited from that approach he took. He helped out this area quite a lot.”
Kankakee Community College President Michael Boyd said he didn’t have a lot of time to get to know Karlock, but he is certainly well versed in how he helped established KCC.
“Merlin Karlock has left an indelible mark on our community. He helped develop the vision for what was to become KCC. He was all about helping to advocate for this college’s development. It’s clear to see how devoted he was to this vision,” Boyd said. “He knew this community college would have a significant impact and enhance the quality of life for this region.”
<strong>BUSINESS IN HIS BLOOD</strong>
Born at home in 1931 during the Great Depression, Karlock’s parents, George and Bernice Karlock, lived out on a tiny farm in eastern Kankakee County. It was a hardscrabble life at the time when corn was still harvested by hand.
By the age of 5, for unclear reasons, Karlock decided to run away from home. He packed a knapsack and headed down the road. Eventually his grandfather, Everett Madison, drove by. He stopped and listened to his grievances and asked his grandson if he wanted to live with him and his grandmother, Anna. The young boy did. He lived with his “Gramps” for more than 30 years, until Gramps passed away.
At his grandfather’s funeral, Karlock leaned over the coffin and put a $100 bill in Everette’s suit pocket because Gramps always said he never wanted to go anywhere without a dollar in his pocket. It was from Gramps that Merlin first learned about business, how to fight and how to speak out when faced with injustice.
At about the age of 9, Karlock started his first business, selling hay by the side of the road. He quickly sold the initial 50 bales his grandfather had given him, and eventually Karlock was buying hay in bulk for resale. By age 11, he was making spot cash loans for the weekend, the modern equivalent to payday loans.
In his teen years, he began renting an old boat to tourists for 50 cents a day to fish in Lake Metonga, near Grant Park. He eventually built up the fleet to 18 boats. He was earning cash, and by high school he was buying himself a new car every year.
After high school, he attended Valpariso College and then transferred to Florida Southern College, where he learned about growing oranges. One of his classmates and friends was Lawton Chiles, a future U.S. Senator of Florida.
After graduation he returned to Illinois and eventually inherited his grandfather’s 200-acre farm. He bought many more farms in Indiana between Lake Village and Morocco, an area known for its marginal sandy soil. He set out to improve the soil in an old-fashioned way by creating pastures for cattle whose manure transformed the soil.
By 1968, Karlock had 1,000 head of hogs and 1,000 black Angus cattle. In 1974, he bought 13,000 acres from the Norris Corp. Signs on U.S. Route 41 and Interstate 65 proclaimed: “Karlock Ranch — Indiana’s Largest Individually Owned Farm — 23,000 acres.”
His growing empire eventually included grain elevators in Indiana. He became a Realtor, an appraiser, homebuilder and a farm manager for others, including Potter Palmer, then the owner of the Harlem Globetrotters. He bought and sold at least 75 farms in Kankakee, Iroquois and Will counties and Indiana.
In 1975 he was a member of the Department of Agriculture Committee on Feed Grains, promoting the sale of crops to Russia. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush named Karlock to the President’s Council on Rural America. He was one of 19 committee members, serving under the chairmanship of Winthrop Rockefeller of Arkansas.
The tours of rural America exposed him to shocking amounts of poverty, which left his questioning how so many areas were left behind.
<strong>CIVIC LEADER</strong>
In 1966, Karlock was elected to the board that would found KCC. He was the first chairman of the KCC board, donated the first scholarship at KCC and led the foundation that would eventually raise money for thousands of other scholarships.
He would convince Gov. Sam Shapiro that the state of Illinois should donate land along the Kankakee River, which became the home for the college in south Kankakee.
Appointed by Gov. Richard Ogilvie, Karlock would serve on the Illinois Junior College Board. He was elected vice chairman of the board in 1971. He would also later serve on the executive committee for the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the founding board of directors for Governors State University, the board of trustees for the State University Retirement System and the Citizen Advisory Board for the University of Illinois.
In 2010, impressed with a printed biography of then-KCC President John Avendano, Karlock called him. Karlock and his wife, Donna, donated Donna’s 24,000-square-foot clothing store along Illinois Route 50 to KCC. The site is now a career-focused second campus.
“You have to find a way to teach people how to get a job,” Karlock said.
<strong>BANK FOUNDER</strong>
In 1969, Karlock organized Eastern Illinois Savings Bank. Deacons from First Baptist Church in Momence told Karlock that their church needed to sell all of its property to build at a new location. Karlock bought their old church along Dixie Highway sight unseen.
In order to succeed in banking, a person must know the community and to read and trust people. A banker must have optimism to be able to help people realize their dreams. Karlock, a man who had built businesses of many different kinds, was an excellent banker.
He went on to open Municipal Bank in Bourbonnais in 1981.
“There was not a person he didn’t know,” Boicken said regarding Karlock’s talent as a banker. “He had an infectious laugh. He always had a story to tell and he was willing to listen. He had a sense of people and realized people stumbled, many times because of something out of their control. He believed in second chances and helped many that didn’t have the credentials on paper …”
<strong>SOUGHT POLITICS</strong>
While business was his passion, elected office was not foreign to Karlock.
In 1976, Karlock made a run as a Democrat for the U.S. House of Representatives, mounting a serious challenge to Joliet Republican George O’Brien.
The seat representing Kankakee County was then the 17th District. A lifelong Republican, Karlock changed political parties to run and, the region, then heavily Republican, made for a stern challenge.
Karlock criticized his opponent for taking large contributions. Karlock returned more than $60,000 in contributions, accepting none larger than $10. His $600,000 campaign was largely self-funded and at that time the most money ever spent on a U.S. Congressional campaign.
Blunt on the campaign trail, he spoke out for tough automatic sentences for those convicted of using guns to commit crimes. He did not favor farm price supports. He vowed not to take money from the moon project and educate doctors.
His message did not gain as much support as needed. He lost 114,274 to 81,662.
The day after the election he woke up in the morning and went to work. He said the loss was a life-changing event. Thereafter he knew “how to better work a room and to listen to the views of others.”
<strong>GOLF AND BON VIVANT</strong>
Karlock had a very different type of experience when it came to the development of the Bon Vivant Country Club and golf course in Bourbonnais.
In 1977, he set out to build a luxury golf development in Bourbonnais in an effort to bring families and new businesses to the community. He purchased more than 1,000 acres of farmland and proceeded to create contours and vistas, sand traps and water hazards where there had been only cornfields.
He planted some 10,000 trees and shrubs. He had a 40,000-square-foot, three-story white brick clubhouse in the French modern style. A fitness pavilion was added with an Olympic-size pool, driving ranges, croquet courts and even a grass runway for small airplanes.
The 18-hole course would rank among the top 10 most difficult courses in Illinois. A second 18-hole course was added in 1997. The complex hosted the 1996 U.S. Men’s Amateur Qualifier. In 1982, it hosted the PGA Qualifying Tour School and the LPGA Pro-Am.
A dispute with the village of Bourbonnais revolving around Karlock’s plan to construct houses around the golf course — which would require annexation to the village — led him to his 2008 decision to close the golf course and plow it under returning it to farmland.