Orville Frederick “Fred” Kiel of Lanesboro, Minn., passed away on September 24, 2022, in Rochester, Minn. He was 82. 

Survived by children Kelly (Gregory) Garramone, Amy (Doug) McNamara, Bryn (Daniel) Hennessy, Anna (Graham) Martin, Jordan (Sahar) Kiel, and Freda Kiel; his siblings Loren Kiel and Dolores Johnson, 10 grandchildren: Medbh, Gwyneth, Noel, Neave, Violet, Havaa, Naomi, Nouri, Arezou, and Avishai, and his beloved dog Felicity. 

Fred was born on May 15, 1940, in Rapid City, S. Dak., the youngest of five children of Orville Manford Kiel and Anna Mabel Shoemaker Kiel. His family were rancher farmers who instilled in him a commitment to being a true steward of the land, resulting in a lifelong love of the natural world and an interest in conservation and sustainable agriculture.

Fred’s education started in a one-room schoolhouse (Alfalfa Valley 19) in Grindstone, S. Dak., and finished with a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Minnesota.

Fred’s love of people, conversation, and the land prompted him to build the Sacred Clay Country Inn in Lanesboro, his favorite place on Earth, in 2005. Constructed with the work and support of local and Amish carpenters and craftsmen, Sacred Clay (the name inspired by the clay beneath its hills and by Isaiah 64:8: “We are the clay and you, Lord, our potter”) sits on a verdant hillside overlooking Duschee Creek. Fred described Sacred Clay’s mission as “helping people become more fully human — to experience both their head and heart, a place for personal renewal.” In addition to serving as an anchor and oasis in the lives of his children, grandchildren, and friends, Sacred Clay was a place for weddings, family reunions, and a haven for guests to enjoy each other and nature at its best. Fred promoted and supported musicians, artists, Amish artisans, and craftspeople at Sacred Clay. His commitment to land stewardship and conservation led him to support sustainable farming and organic dairy practices.

As an executive coach for more than 40 years, Fred guided Fortune 500 companies and nonprofits in accelerating business success through principled leadership. In 1991, Fred co-founded KRW International in Minneapolis, pioneering a customized deep-dive development process that provided senior executives with transformative feedback. Fred characterized his approach to executive coaching as one that starts in the heads and hearts of leadership. “That’s my purpose — to help leaders of large organizations connect their heads to their hearts. This has always been my North Star.”

Fred wrote three books on executive coaching and character. These books have been translated into seven languages and are used as core texts in many university courses on business ethics. Fred’s most recent book, “Return on Character”, published in 2015 by Harvard Business Review Press, was a pioneering work in the field of character science. Based on the insights of his seven-year study of CEOs and executive teams, Fred established a correlation between character habits (integrity, responsibility, forgiveness, and compassion) of senior leaders and positive financial outcomes, employee engagement, and risk reduction. He codified this research into a concise ethos of “who you are matters more than what you do.” Leaders set the culture and the culture creates the value, both to shareholders and customers. Fred closed his book with a call for readers to bring about a change in global leadership norms such that leaders everywhere — business, government, science, politics, religion — are expected to be and become individuals with strong character habits. “Leadership character should be fundamental to business education programs and performance evaluation processes. Business schools are misguided. They emphasize training MBAs in the business skills but never even glance at the other side of the equation — who are you as a person? How do you treat other people? What does your heart tell you? Would your decision making improve if your head and heart were connected?”

A prolific writer both professionally and privately, to the delight of his children and grandchildren, Fred self-published a children’s book, “Tales from the Grindstone Forest,” illustrated by his young son Jordan. The Tales were inspired by stories from his youth set in a magical forest, filled with lovely and loving animal friends. His prose is both lively and animated while also pausing to invite the reader to hear and feel the magnificence of the natural world.

Fred was strongly committed to community service. In 1976, he was appointed to the first licensing board of psychologists by the governor of Minnesota. Fred served on the boards of several philanthropic organizations, including Augsburg College Youth and Family Institute, Graywolf Press, Walk-In Counseling Center, Lyra Concert, the Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center, and the Lanesboro Chamber of Commerce. He also served on the adjunct staff of the Center for Creative Leadership for nearly 10 years and served two terms on the Board of Psychology for the state of Minnesota.

Fred was a joyful, optimistic, hopeful, kind, generous, and funny father, grandfather, friend, and colleague. He is deeply loved and sorely missed.

January 31, 2023, by Fillmore County Journal

Additional obituaries :

StarTribune: https://www.startribune.com/obituaries/detail/0000448059/?fullname=o-frederick-fred-kiel

Legacy.com: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/o-kiel-ph-d-obituary?id=39346800