Three new laureates were welcomed Thursday morning into the Owensboro Business Hall of Fame — the late Bill Kuegel, Wayne Foster, and the late Jack Wells.
The event was hosted by Junior Achievement and sponsored by German American Bank.
Kuegel attended Georgetown College until he joined the service in World War II. After returning from the war, he came back to Kentucky where he went on to have two children.
Kuegel and his three brothers farmed on his recently purchased land and developed a successful 4,000-acre operation.
Kuegel’s daughter Marcia Carpenter accepted the award on her father’s behalf. Carpenter said her father would be glad he influenced young people, something he was good at.
“Some of you have said things to me, told me stories today that I never even have heard and it’s so, so inspiring to me that dad’s legend lives on through some of you,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter said her father was always was willing to learn from everything he experienced and move further.
“He had some disappointments and some failures, but he never let that define him,” Carpenter said. “He woke up every morning, he dove into the deep end, he popped out and said ‘let’s roll.’”
Foster is an Owensboro native and owner of The Systems Specialist. When Foster returned to Owensboro after serving in the Air Force, he worked on the computerized billing team for Western Kentucky Gas and Millen Haynes.
The System Specialist became a major business partner with IBM and as IBM’s market strategy evolved, Foster took advantage of new opportunities to sell IBM hardware. He was later honored as one of the top 10 IBM business partners salesmen in the United States.
As Foster accepted his award, he talked about how thankful he was for his team, especially his wife.
He also talked about how COVID-19 affected his business.
“For the first time in 47 years, we laid people off — not only some people, we laid everybody in our company off. Hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Foster said. “But the good part is 2020 was the biggest year we’ve ever had since we’ve been in business.”
Wells built the largest long-term care company in Kentucky early in his career, owning and managing 45 centers with over 3,500 employees.
His other business ventures included assisted living centers; apartment complexes; numerous properties in Florida and the Dominican Republic; and the purchase of the Canteen Service franchise, which he exponentially expanded.
Wells brother Jim accepted the award in Jack’s honor and thanked everyone who helped his brother along the way.
“He would say thank you, and then he would walk off this platform, ready to serve, ready to give, ready to embrace you, ready to accept you as part of his family, for he really truly loved you, if he was here,” Jim Wells said.
