K.C. Stock, co-founder of Stock Development, remembered for entrepreneurial and kind spirit
K.C. Stock left his mark on Southwest Florida, not only as a builder and developer, but as a man of principle — and of kindness.
Stock, 84, a founder of Naples-based Stock Development, died on Nov. 28.
He's remembered as a true entrepreneur and as a strong, yet gentle man, who loved business and life.
Voted "least likely to succeed" in high school, the Wisconsinite defied the odds.
Take a look: K.C. Stock never stopped trying to make his communities better
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He succeeded — and then some — through hard work, sheer determination and old-fashioned grit.
Stock Development is just one of his many success stories. But it's the success story that's left the biggest mark on Southwest Florida.
After vacationing in the Naples area for years, K.C. and his son Brian launched Stock Development in late 2001.
True to its name, the business began as a development company, with the purchase of 340 acres in Lely Resort, east of Naples, but the company quickly expanded into homebuilding.
Over the years, the now diversified real estate company has continued to evolve and adapt, surviving more than one recession — and other hiccups.
Through it all, K.C. and Brian worked side by side, making decisions together, with input from their trusted management team.
"It was their business together. K.C. was involved in every decision, everything, every action," said Claudine Leger-Wetzel, the company's vice president of sales and marketing.
K.C. saw his employees as the keys to his success, treating them with respect and kindness. One of his favorite sayings: "You're only as good as the people you surround yourself with."
"That is something that he lived and breathed by," Leger-Wetzel said.
A few weeks ago, he flew down to Naples from Wisconsin to attend an employee's wedding.
"That's just who he was," Leger-Wetzel said.
Father and son had a "once-in-a-lifetime relationship"
K.C. served as chairman of Stock Development — and as a mentor to Brian, who's CEO.
"There was probably nothing Brian ever didn't run by his dad. They were always talking about everything," said Matt Sellick, president of the company's homebuilding division.
Leger-Wetzel agreed.
"It truly was a beautiful, a once-in-a-lifetime relationship," she said.
Together, they not only succeeded, but gave back in a big way.
K.C. strived to make a difference in people's lives. In 1991, he founded the K.C. Stock Foundation to do just that. Over the years, the foundation doled out millions to various charitable causes, mostly in Wisconsin, but some of the money found its way to Southwest Florida.
Notably, in Wisconsin his foundation made the lead gift to start a children's hospital at St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay, so most families in the northeastern part of the state wouldn't have to make the long trek to Milwaukee for treatment.
Stock Development has made some big community investments and donations of its own.
Recently, the company gave Florida Gulf Coast University's construction management department a $2.5 million gift to support its growth. The department has been renamed in the company's honor.
Despite all his successes, K.C. remained humble and grateful.
"Our hearts are broken here. Because he was just a legacy that we
are just going to hold up every day," Leger-Wetzel said.
Sellick echoed those thoughts.
"They just don't make them like this anymore," he said of K.C. and his family.
Hired right out of college, Sellick said he'll be with Stock Development as long as they'll have him, until the day he retires.
"The bottom line is the family. That's just what it always goes back to is the family," he said.
"And their core values," added Leger-Wetzel, who joined the company more than 20 years ago.
One of Sellick's earliest memories of K.C. is seeing him pull up to a job site in a modest Sebring convertible. He wasn't about flashing his wealth.
"That's not what mattered to him," he said.
Stock Development has reshaped Southwest Florida
Since its founding, Stock Development has built more than 6,000 single-family homes in Florida, Wyoming and Montana. Most of those homes are in Southwest Florida.
In Florida, the company has completed about 1,200 apartments, with hundreds more under construction — and another rental complex in development.
Recently, the builder announced that its first-ever high-rise tower project, One Naples, overlooking Vanderbilt Beach, in North Naples, would be an exclusive Ritz-Carlton residential development.
The ultra-luxury community has been renamed the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Naples. It will include 128 residences on six acres in a pair of 12-story buildings. Construction and sales are under way.
Stock Development has built commercial projects as well, from retail stores to offices.
After buying out the original developers, K.C. and Brian constructed two golf courses in Southwest Florida, Grandezza in Estero and Olde Cypress in Naples, along with homes.
At just 19, K.C. built his first house.
Over the years, he owned, built, expanded and sold many businesses, including Stock Lumber, his first contractor yard, and Cruisers Yachts, a boat-building company, both in Wisconsin.
After buying the lumber company from his dad in 1971, K.C. grew it into a multi-state building supply operation. He later sold it for about $100 million.
True to his roots, K.C. purchased Oconto-based Cruisers to avoid a shut down in 1993.
"He bought that company because it employed everybody in his hometown," Sellick said. "It was going out of business and he didn't want everyone to lose their job in his hometown."
At one time, Cruisers had as many as 750 employees.
When he sold Stock Lumber and Cruisers, K.C. shared part of his profits with the employees, based on their years of service.
He founded Stock Development after the sale of Stock Lumber.
Brian stayed on with Stock Lumber, following its sale, but the new owners wanted him to take a higher-level position, requiring him to relocate and travel more overseas, which he didn't find appealing, Leger-Wetzel said.
So, K.C. offered his son a better option, to go into the real estate business together, in a place they both loved.
K.C. Stock always kept busy
In an interview with a local reporter in 1999, after winning the Rotary Club of Green Bay's Free Enterprise Award, K.C. shared that his sister told him "you've got to smell the roses." But it wasn't his style.
"I just enjoy being busy. I like challenges. I like working and being with people. I like learning other things," said Stock, so many years ago.
For a time, keeping busy included serving on the Green Bay Packers' board of directors.
Over his lifetime, K.C. also owned eight farms, which kept him plenty busy too.
He loved the cattle business. In 2020, he purchased what's now known as Stock Ranch with Brian in Bozeman, Montana, so he could get back into the Black Angus cattle business.
Last year, K.C. sold Cruisers Yachts after owning it for nearly 30 years, to MarineMax, based in Clearwater, Florida.
In a news release, Mark Pedersen, president of Cruisers Yachts, said, “The one statement that best describes K.C. is his love and commitment to the employees."
"Anytime he would visit, he would first ask how many team members were working and then walked the floor to visit with them," he said.
K.C. — short for Kenneth Charles — was married to his wife Georgia for 54 years, whom he met while owning and operating a pallet business.
"She was the love of his life," Leger-Wetzel said.
They had four boys. Brian is the youngest.
K.C. will be greatly missed by his family and friends and the many others who crossed his path in Southwest Florida and up north.
Victoria Bostedt, a former mayor of Oconto, said he never forgot his roots and remained friendly and outgoing, despite the heights he achieved.
She described him as one in a trillion, who can't be replaced.
"He just can never be forgotten. Never," she said.
Funeral services were held Monday in Green Bay.
Richard Ryman and Christopher Clough of the Green Bay Press-Gazette, part of the USA Today Network, contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: K.C. Stock of Stock Development in Naples has died
