WINONA, Minn. – Multi-millionaire Winona philanthropist Bob Kierlin died at age 85. He was legendary in Winona.
Fastenal in his veins
With buddies from Cotter High School, Kierlin founded Fastenal with the innovation of delivering screws, threaded rods and nuts directly to construction job sites. It was a new supply chain concept in 1967. Contractors loved the efficiency of going to a Fastenal trailer on-site for bits and pieces. Fastenal grew rapidly and became Winona’s largest employer with global annual revenues of $7.3 billion. As a publicly traded company, Fastenal is listed on the Fortune 500. Worldwide it has 23,200 employees. Kierlin was Fastenal’s chief executive from 1968 to 2002. he was on its board of directors until 2014 when he reached the mandatory 75 retirement age. He continued on in an advisory role.
Public service
1939-2025. Died at Winona hospital.
Kierlin was elected to represent southeast Minnesota in the state Senate in 1998 and re-elected in 2002. He broke with fellow Republicans to legalize marijuana as a medicinal tool to relieve pain. This was after his first wife, Stephanie Valencia, a Venezuelan ballerina, died of cancer at age 49. Kierlin’s views on medicinal marijuana did not succeed politically at the time. Kierlin chose not to seek a third term in the Senate, saying privately that he was disillusioned with the pettiness and disingenuousness he experienced in the legislative process.
Philanthropy
Kierlin’s philanthropic instincts and religious inclinations showed in the late 1990s when he donated hundreds of desktop computers to budget-strapped Catholic schools in southeast Minnesota. Critics said, somewhat unfairly, that he was buying votes for his pending campaign for the state Senate from Fillmore, Houston and Winona counties. The fact, however, is that his generosity continued to grow. After the College of St. Teresa ran out of money and folded in 1989, Kierlin and his fellow Cotter buddies who founded Fastenal gave millions of dollars to Cotter to buy most of the shuttered CST campus and relocate.
Legacy in culture, also bricks and mortar
Other Kierlin projects have left Winona better place:
> Signatures. With his wife, Mary Burrichter, Kierlin rescued the long-floudering Winona Country Club and established the world-class restaurant Signatures. The décor included Burrichter’s collection of guitars signed by Stephen Stills, Arlo Guthrie, Joe Cocker and two dozen other A-list performers. Their goal was to help the country club into self-sustainability. Gradually they weaned off their sponsorship but continued to dine there with celery in the iced water, hors d’oeuvre, muse-bouche and a palate cleanser.
> Minnesota Marine Art Museum. On riverfront Drive they built the museum in 2006 as both showcase for their personal collection and as an enhancement for Winona’s reputation as an arts and cultural center. They hung their own print of Emanuel Leutze’s “Crossing the Delaware.” In 2016 as the Kierlins were shifting the museum to be on its own financially, they sold sold the print or $45 million.
> Main Square. Kierlin was a major backer of a project to buy a whole block downtown and build a for a stylish four-story complex in 2018. Called Majn Square, the complex included 60 amenities-laden luxury apartments, as well market-price units; retail and office space; and a Montessori school. In 2o24 he began a matching complex, also four stories, on an adjoining block.
> Fastenal office building. Although no longer on the Fastenal board in 2021, Kierlin was in on planning the new 95,000-square boot Fastenal corporate office building overlooking the Mississippi River from Second Street. Like many later Kierlin projects, the building replaced mostly junky and dilapidated structures that had surrounded the downtown outskirts.
> Masterpiece Hall. The Kierlin opus is the $35 million concert hall due to open in late 2025 on Fifth Street next to the neo0clasial Winona library. The hall will include art galleries as well as a 700-seat auditorium for significant concerts and performances. “World class,” he called it.
Tributes
Verbatim
Scott Pollock, director, Minnesota Marine Art Mueum: “His generosity and vision helped shape the museum and push MMAM into the national spotlight. He was a supporter of the Winona community and of the arts. There would not be a Minnesota Marine Art Museum without his generosity and support.”
Verbatim
Scott Sherman, Winona mayor: “The city of Winona as a whole is extremely saddened by the passing of Bob Kierlin,” said Winona Mayor Scott Sherman. “Bob was a generational figure within Winona in terms of his philanthropy, his foresight into economic development within our community, and then also a strong supporter of the arts and culture segment within our community. We’ll forever be thankful for the opportunity to have been able to have Bob in Winona and his legacy will live on for many years to come.”
Details: Fawcett FuneralHome