Former farm implement dealer was a volunteer in Blissfield

1/14/2006

BLISSFIELD Emery H. Kohlman, a community volunteer who formerly owned a farm equipment dealership franchise here, died Thursday in his daughter Bonnie A. Kupa s home in Monroe County s Summerfield Township after a short illness. He was 77.

The family did not know the cause of death.

Mr. Kohlman, who had a bachelor s degree in agricultural engineering from Ohio State University, was owner and president of Kohlman s International Sales for 18 years, from its inception in 1969 until his retirement in 1987.

Before that, he was a district manager for the former International Harvester, first in Paw Paw, Mich., and later in Medina, Ohio.

He was a longtime member of the Blissfield Rotary Club, of which he was president for a year, and St. Paul s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Blissfield, where he rang the church bell and volunteered as a gardener.

His sister, Dorothy J. Watkins, described him as a very hardworking and outgoing person, who enjoyed helping people.

His daughter, Bonnie, agreed.

He was always working on the church yard and, if someone needed their garden roto-tilled, he would do it for them [for free], Mrs. Kupa, said.

Mr. Kohlman, a native of Ottawa County, graduated from Oak Harbor High School in 1947 and soon enlisted in the Air Force. He then served in Texas for a full enlistment and later enrolled at Ohio State, from which he graduated in 1954.

A year later, he married Mary Catherine Katy Roose. She died in 1997.

In his free time, Mr. Kohlman, an avid Buckeyes fan, enjoyed attending football games, growing gladioli and vegetables in his garden, fishing, and making sauerkraut for family and friends.

His other memberships included the Gladioli Society in Toledo and the Hiawatha Sportsman s Club in Michigan s Upper Peninsula, where he was a member for 40 years.

Surviving are his daughter, Bonnie A. Kupa; son, Paul E. Kohlman; brother, Herman E. Kohlman; sisters, Alice M. Miller, Clara W. Parman, May P. Schimming, and Dorothy J. Watkins, and two grandsons.

Services will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow in St. Paul s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Blissfield. The body will be in the Reeb Funeral Home, Sylvania, after 3 p.m. today.

The family suggests tributes to St. Paul s Evangelical Lutheran Church or the American Cancer Society.