Roofing Billionaire Dies Falling Through A Roof

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As strange as it might sound, there is a very sad story coming out of Rock County, Wisconsin today. Ken Hendrick who is listed as one of the top 100 people in the world in terms of money, died from injuries substained by falling through a roof. He was apparently on top of his garage and was checking the roof, when he fell through and suffered massive head injuries. His wife called for help and attempted CPR on him. Once medical personel arrived they took him to one hospital and later on transported him to another hospital, where he was then pronounced dead at the age of 66. This is a very tragic story and by it occurring just before Christmas; it is going to make a lot more Christmas’s in the Hendrick household, be a grim reminder of this day.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Ken Hendrick.

So who was Ken Hendrick?

Wikipedia has him listed this way: A businessman who grew a shingle supply company into a 2.6 billion dollar fortune and a spot on the Forbes 400. Primarily assosciated with Beloit, Wisconsin, Hendrick’s lived in Afton, an incorporated community halfway between the two cities.

Kenneth J. Hendricks was born in Janesville, Wisconsin in 1941. He would join up with his dad on the weekends and help reshingle houses. Later on he would start his own roofing company and he had branched out to many other states by 1971. Back then a lot of roofers were just local guys to an area, so Mr. Hendrick’s quest to be in other states wasn’t something that other roofers were doing. He was in a sense pioneering the roofing business that would take him from one state to another one.

Now once the business started taking up a lot of his personal time, he decided to sell the roofing company that he had worked so hard to build. Once his company was sold, he decided to start ABC Supply company and this became the largest wholesaler of roofing materials in the U.S.. In 2004 Mr. Hendricks was added to the Forbes 400 as sales from the ABC Supply company were approaching 3 billion dollars a year. In 2006 is when Ken Hendrick’s was added to the “world’s billionaires list” by Forbes. He was also in the process of building an environmentally friendly roof for one of the complexes at the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, China.

I admire a lot of the wealthy people that are around the world today. They are some really great stories of rags to riches, but one of my favorite has to be Ken Hendrick’s story. One of his favorite songs is by Alan Jackson and it’s called Little Man. He looks as the little man being like the mom and pop type stores, competing against the Wal Mart’s of the world. While growing up he saw a local country club that had high standards and how they would look down on his father, because of his profession of being a roofer. I think it was things like this that kept the man so motivated and the type of legacy he’s going to leave behind.

Ken Hendrick didn’t have any fancy educational degrees from Harvard or Yale. In fact, he actually dropped out of high school so that he could work with his father more with his roofing company. He describes his success this way: “We didn’t invent anything, but even Jesus Christ had a roof and it probably had to be repaired“. I got that quote from Forbes Website and I’m glad it was there for me to find. Seeing this man use Jesus Christ as an example of his success, lets me know that he had religious values. I’m sure Ken Hendrick was a christian and somebody that had a relationship with Christ. I would imagine that Ken Hendrick would give a lot of credit to Jesus for the success he had in life. They say God needs the good ones early and they sure got one today! They must have needed him up there more than down here, because I’m sure he still had a lot more to give in this world.

The 3.5 billion dollars that Forbes has him estimated at, is not even enough to get into Heaven with, but it sounds like Ken Hendrick had the right ticket to get in the gates of Heaven. I think in time, that quote that is listed on Forbes website will offer comfort to the family one day. If one of the family members of Ken Hendrick sees that website or reads my blog here, they will know that he said that part about Jesus Christ having a roof. It could have been something he said all the time and the family may have heard him use that example on numerous occassions. There’s just something about seeing something in print, as opposed to memories and I really think it will be something that will comfort a family member or members one day.

Yes the world has lost a great man in Ken Hendrick and all the things he accomplished in his 66 years are worth noting over and over. I think he has left behind a strong legacy that will carry over the next several generations and beyond.

Alan Jackson’s Little Man

In Loving Memory of Ken Hendrick (1941-2007)