Featured Fathers

Founder and president of Kinze Manufacturing in Williamsburg, Iowa, Jon Kinzenbaw shares his thoughts and feelings on fatherhood. He and his wife, Marcia, are parents of their now grown children, Susie and Jonathan.

Jon feels the hardest part about being a father for his children today is, “Realizing our children need to get out on their own and not having them around everyday is really hard.” But, Jon and his children have grown closer together over the years and share many traditions together. “Recently Jonathan and I restored a large lawn and garden tractor that had been burned. Well, my daughter Susie got interested in what we were doing and asked if we could build a jeep from old vehicle parts together.” Jon and Susie made a pact that they could only work on the jeep when they were together. Two thousand hours later, the jeep is now a complete and licensed Sports Utility Vehicle.

Over the years, Jon has taught his children many things that he feels come best from a father. Jon feels it’s important for fathers to realize that a part of a father’s responsibility is to teach them valuable lessons in life and pass along helpful advice. Jon shares some pieces of valuable advice that he has passed along to his children and has practiced throughout his own life, “The key to financial success is to spend less than you earn and do it for a long time. But, most importantly, spend as much time with your kids because you only have them for a short while.”

Prepared by Jeni Madsen, ISU FCS intern.