Ralph Korte credits SIUE for his company's success

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. -He was a sponge, a model student, taking in every piece of information he could glean from the SIUE School of Business. Now, more than 30 years later, that student's company is on track to do $150 million in annual business.

He is Ralph Korte, chairman of Korte Construction Co., and he's reaching official retirement age this year. One of the things he learned in the School of Business more than 30 years ago was to hire good people and allow them to do a good job.

It was sound advice. Korte has considered himself "retired" for the past 15 years. "In 1984, I made Vernon Eardley president of Korte Construction and then five years later he became CEO," Korte said. "If retirement is doing what you love to do day in and day out, then I've been retired for 15 years. The company is in good order and it's in good hands."

And, the adage about old dogs and new tricks doesn't apply to the 64-year-old entrepreneur who has embraced computer technology. "I spend three months out of the year in Florida and, with the use of voice mail, e-mail, and a FAX machine, I conduct a lot of business there.

"When you return someone's call they don't ask you where you're sitting at that moment," he said. "They don't know you're not seated at a desk in St. Louis."

Korte has been building since he was 13- years- old, helping his father on the family farm. "My father was a farmer but he also was good at carpentry," Korte said. "We believed that if you worked hard and didn't charge too much, you could be successful.

"I helped construct farm buildings and eventually decided to go into that business with my cousin."

Korte began his company in 1958 but within a year he made a life-altering decision. He would go to college.

The SIUE School of Business was in its early stages when Korte enrolled at the East St. Louis Residence Center. "I believe that if it weren't for SIUE and the School of Business, our company would not have put in place $130 million of construction last year; it would have been $5 million.

"They taught me a lot about working smarter and I am grateful for it every day," Korte said. However, there wasn't some master plan at work in Korte's mind about higher education at the time he began classes at SIU. "I just wanted to get even with Uncle Sam," he says with a smile.

"I spent 16 months in Korea during the Korean conflict," Korte explained, "and that earned me the right to go to college using the G.I. Bill. The government was going to pay me $2.30 an hour to go to school; I felt they owed me for my service."

Because of a bureaucratic snag, Korte began classes at Belleville Junior College, later known as Belleville Area College. He was notified that his GED score was excellent, but the registrar at SIU's East St. Louis Residence Center needed a certified notification and a transcript from the government.

"I walked to the veterans' affairs office two blocks away and someone there called the junior college and asked if they'd accept me in class pending receipt of my grades and they agreed." Korte began a rhetoric class at Belleville at the ripe age of 24.

"By fall, I had my official GED papers and enrolled at SIU. It was more convenient for me to attend at East St. Louis because I lived in Highland."

After two years and an associate's degree, Korte decided he would continue toward a bachelor's in Business. "I could see that a four-year business degree could help. I was on track to become a home builder and like most builders I could probably do about $1 million annually," he said.

"I thought if I earned a university degree it could help the business do better. Contractors come and go. Believe me, I've seen it, and it's not because of lack of hard work. It has to do partly with the ability to delegate.

"By the time I graduated from SIUE in 1968, I was doing about $1 million a year; I could outwork anybody. But regardless of how hard I worked, I learned in business studies that I could hire eight good people and we could accomplish that much more work.

"From the SIUE School of Business I learned how to delegate and manage good people."

Korte said there was one other crucial thing he learned at SIUE-how to write a business letter. "I used to write these long, drawn-out letters but I learned that all the recipient want to know is: 'ship the goods and mail a check.' "

It was a rare time for Korte who was taking in everything he could learn from his professors about the business climate. "At that time, carpenters were making $3.65 an hour and I recall Leo Cohen, an economics professor, was talking about inflation to us in our class. I asked if it were feasible that a carpenter could one day be making $10 an hour and he said it was possible.

"Well, we thought that was a far-out notion," Korte said with a laugh. "Now, carpenters are making double that amount. Those classes really opened my eyes to all the possibilities in this business. There was a camaraderie among the students and the faculty at that time. We would all have coffee together during breaks."

During the ensuing decades, Korte Construction has become a national company with more than 260 employees and offices in Highland and St. Louis and a branch office in Las Vegas to handle regional work in the western part of the country. The company currently has employees on construction sites in 10 states, and all employees are connected by the internet.

"I learned about the internet five years ago at a conference and within a year we had our own server," Korte points out. "It has changed how we do business and it has meant a large increase in our productivity."

Part of that productivity is evident on the SIUE campus, where Korte Construction has built the Ralph Korte Stadium, the Environmental Resource Training Center, the Korte Classroom in the School of Business, and the SIU School of Dental Medicine Implant Clinic at University Park.

The company will soon begin construction of B. Barnard Birger Hall just north of Circle Drive between Alumni Hall and the Vadalabene Center. Birger Hall will house the Office of Development and Public Affairs, and also Alumni Services, as well as the SIUE Foundation.

Korte is proud of his company's success and equally proud of his children: "My son, Todd, recently was named president of Korte Construction, taking over for Vernon Eardley who continues as CEO," Korte said.

"My daughter, Susan Bowman, is comptroller for the company; my son, Greg, owns his own construction company in Las Vegas; and my daughter, Vicki Solhein, is a part-time CPA in New Milford, Conn."

Originally planning to take over the family farm, Korte certainly took a major detour but believes he made the right choices. "If it weren't for SIUE, I truly believe the company wouldn't be where it is today.

"If I had gone to high school, my life probably would have been completely different," he said. "It was all serendipitous, you might say."