- Chairman and president of Kohler Co., a Wisconsin company which manufactures plumbing supplies and kitchen/bath appliances. Herb Kohler befriended Kevin Costner at a fundraising event and has a small part in his picture, Open Range (2003). He is one of the 500 richest men in the USA.
- He applied for and was personally granted over 200 design and utility patents.
- Developer of two golf courses at Blackwolf Run in 1988, and two additional courses at Whistling Straits in 1998, both the two championship golf courses, and the two companion courses were designed by Pete Dye and Alice Dye, and are part of Koh;er's Destination Kohler resort, in the Village of Kohler, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA, and are owned and operated by The Kohler Company.
- His Whistling Straits golf course on the shores of Lake Michigan has hosted three PGA Championships (2004, 2010, 2015), the 2007 U.S. Senior Open, and the 2021 Ryder Cup. It's companion course, inland of the Straits Course, is the Irish Course.
- His entry level, full time position at the family company was as an R&D technician in 1965, and he joined the Kohler Company board of directors in 1967.
- He was inducted into the National Kitchen and Bath Hall of Fame in1989, the year of the hall's founding. He was also inducted to the National Housing Hall of Fame in 1993. He was named the National Entrepreneur of the Year in Manufacturing by the Ernst & Young accounting firm in 2002, and in 2006, Junior Achievement inducted him into its U.S. Business Hall of Fame.
- His second wife, Natalie Black Kohler, was recently (as of 2021) retired as senior vice president and chief legal officer for the Kohler Company, and is now (as of 2022) president of The Kohler Foundation, and also sits on the Kohler Company board of directors.
- At the time of his death, he had three children, ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
- After 43 years as CEO, chairman, and president of The Kohler Company, he handed off the chief executive and president's positions to his son, David Kohler in 2015, retaining the title of Executive Chairman. At the time of his death, Herbert V. Kohler, Jr. had served the family company since 1961, for 61 of his 83 years.
- Owned the Old Course Hotel, next to the famous Road Hole of the Old Course, Saint Andrews, Scotland, UK.
- He founded and chaired several trusts, which included the Kohler Trust for the Arts and Education, the Kohler Trust for Preservation, the Kohler Trust for Clean Water, all of which are now chaired by his daughter Laura as of 2022.
- He founded the Kohler Interiors Group, and among over 40 acquisitions during his stewardship, the company acquired several premium and luxury brands, including: Baker Furniture, McGuire Furniture Company, Ann Sacks Tile and Stone, Kallista plumbing, and Robern Cabinets.
- The Kohler Company was founded by his grandfather, John Michael Kohler II, in 1873 and his father, Herbert V. Kohler, Sr. was CEO of the company from 1940 until his 1968 death, a period of 28 years.
- He was a trustee of the First Tee charity.
- A 1965 graduate of Yale University, after also attending Knox College and Furman University.
- He served as either a trustee or as a member of the board of directors at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, USA; at Choate Rosemary Hall, a private, college prep boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, USA; at the National Housing Endowment, the philanthropy of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), located in Washington DC, USA; and at the Friendship House affiliate of the Cathedral Center, a residential facility for at-risk women, families, and children in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
- He endowed the Kohler Center for Entrepreneurship at Marquette University's College of Business Administration. This endowment created a program to put Marquette students in regular contact with established business leaders who are models of entrepreneurial success.
- When his father, Herbert V. Kohler, Sr., CEO of the Kohler Company, died in 1968, he was promoted to Vice President of Operations at only age 28.
- He established the Kohler Scholarship for Endowment in Drama at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, USA.
- Herb Kohler's mother, Ruth De Young Kohler, was an historian and former women's editor of the Chicago Tribune.
- He attended and graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall, a private, college prep boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, USA.
- In 2018, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's College of Engineering was the beneficiary when he funded the establishment of the Kohler Innovation Visualization Studio.
- Lakeshore Technical College in Cleveland, Wisconsin, USA was the beneficiary of his largess when he donated the capital for the establishment of the Kohler Center for Manufacturing Excellence.
- He briefly studied at the University of Zurich in Switzerland in the early 1960s.
- He helped to finance and oversaw the design and construction of the Kohler Environmental Center at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, USA, his college prep, boarding school alma mater.
- His uncle, Walter J. Kohler Sr., his father's older brother, was CEO of the Kohler Company from 1905 until his death in 1940, and was succeeded by Herbert V. Kohler, Sr. at that time.
- Herbert V, Kohler, Jr. was appointed Executive Vice President of the Kohler Company in 1971, and the company board of directors elected him Chairman and CEO in 1972, when he was only 33 years old. Over the next 43 years, he oversaw increase of company revenues from $133 million in 1972 to over $6 billion upon his retirement as CEO in 2015.
- The University of Saint Andrews in Scotland, UK, granted him an Honorary degree, as Doctor of Laws for demonstrating a lasting commitment to the town and people of Saint Andrews, Scotland, UK.
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