The Kellers of Louisiana have a family enterprise whose history dates back more than a century, both as landowners and as controlling shareholders of a public company.
With the passing of the patriarch —the Rt. Rev. Christoph Keller Jr., who died in 1995—the six members of the second generation and their spouses led the family in new directions. Several family members have become ministers, and all are engaged in business and philanthropic activities that express the family's deep commitment to its values.
A decade ago, they created Keller Enterprises, a group of family ventures in three areas: socially responsible venture investing, repurposing their family land as an organic farm and philanthropy. They have made impressive strides in each of these areas, and the third generation is entering both management and leadership in each area of operations and on the board.
To move this process forward, members of the third generation—a total of about 25 young people—met recently. Their grandmother, Caroline Keller Winter (the only remaining member of Gen 1) and the members of Gen 2 did not attend the meeting, but each of them wrote a “legacy letter” to Gen 3, in which they described their hopes and desires for the next generation.
“Of the innumerable things our grandmother is excellent at, writing letters is one of them,” says Elizabeth Frennell, a third-generation family member. “I found her words reassuringly familiar. Since we were young, our grandmother has spoken to me and the rest of her grandchildren with the respect one might offer a seasoned adult.”
The idea of the legacy letter came from the reality that the next-generation group would not be who they were without the efforts of their elders. While the elders want them to forge their own way and take responsibility for the future, there are certain values and experiences that are almost sacred to the elders. Since the senior generation would not be at the retreat, the legacy letter is a way for them to be present in spirit, to offer wisdom in a way that inspires the work of the younger group. The legacy letter put into words the most important values that led to where they are now. In the elders' letters, they talked about their values, hopes and dreams for the future.
The letter from matriarch Caroline Keller Winter, who lives on the family's land in Louisiana and in her ninth decade is still active and engaged, is reproduced here with the permission of the family.
“Interestingly, we didn't discuss the letter as a group,” Frennell says. “I think this is because her letter formalized so much of what we've grown up hearing at the dinner table. Like the inimitable matriarch she is, her letter's familiar voice and profound wisdom tacitly perched us to plot a vision and to trust our sense of direction. As we grow more confident as a generation to give Keller Enterprises ‘wings,' our grandmother's even keel will forever be a steadying force, for which I'm eternally grateful.”
We consider Winter's letter to be “Gettysburg Address” of legacy letters. She expresses some universal ideas and principles that are relevant to other business families who are looking to align their legacy with their future actions. The letter artfully imparts both unconditional love and expectation to do great works in a way that has inspired the next generation to voluntarily carry forward as family and as an enterprise.
— Peter Begalla and Dennis Jaffe, Ph.D.
Begalla is an adjunct professor and program manager of Stetson University's Family Enterprise Center. Jaffe is a family business adviser and a professor of organizational systems and psychology at Saybrook University in San Francisco.
Legacy Letter to Generation 3
Greetings to all of you as you gather for the Gen 3 meeting.
I remember well our first gathering some years ago. It gives me great pleasure to reflect on that beginning, and the amazing progress you have made since then. Now you are here to look forward.
Our ranks are greatly diminished by the loss of first Corwith [Gen 3 member Corwith Davis III, who died in August 2012], and then Neil [Gen 2 member Cornelia “Neil” Flagg Keller, who died in January 2013], and we will always carry that sadness with us, but we carry their legacy as well. Happily our numbers have increased with invaluable additions, spouses and Gen 4s, and so it will always be.
I posited then the paradox that I felt embodied your heritage in regard to material things: money is important; money is not important at all. You have shown yourselves to understand the truth in that apparent contradiction. Never forget it.
You made an important decision then to join together in a family business, and set about the difficult job of doing that, ably led by Elisabeth [Elisabeth Keller, CEO of Keller Enterprises LLC and a member of G2], who with her sure insight realized that Keller Enterprises' greatest asset was our human capital, embodied in all of you. She saw as her main task the utilization and development of that capital. I know you, as well as I, are profoundly grateful to her for doing just that.
“You have come a long way, baby (babies?)!” What greater satisfaction could I, as your grandmother and founder, have than to observe that? Your carefully crafted mission statement and your stated values are truly reflected in where you have together brought the business at this point.
What I felt I needed to provide for you as you began this venture was an appreciation of your roots: It is best to know where you came from in order to see where you are going and the freedom to realize your potential. That is sometime described, perhaps tritely, as roots and wings.
Of course you have to have information and knowledge to plot a course. Much has been done by others more qualified than I to provide that, and that will be a continuing need. But keep in mind this quote from T.S. Eliot: “Where is the life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge, where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” You have to have information, you have to have knowledge, but it is useless without wisdom, and that takes time and experience reflected on. I expect you will also be doing that at this weekend.
And you have to have a vision. I believe that may be a prime objective of this meeting. Many of you are too young to remember much of your Grandfather Keller's life or legacy. Here is a brief passage that he loved that I think may be relevant. It is from a book called Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux:
“My friend, I am going to tell you the story of my life. It is the story of all life that is holy and good to tell, and of us two leggeds sharing it with the four leggeds and the beings of the air and all green things, for these are the children of the mother, and their father is one spirit. My vision is of a holy tree that should have flourished in a people's heart with flowers and singing birds, but now is withered. But the vision was true and mighty yet for such things are of the spirit and it is in the darkness of our eyes that men get lost.” It struck us then, as it may you now, how similar that is to the biblical myth of creation and fall. I believe it is also in creation myths of other cultures, which only serves to validate the truth of the vision. It is the underlying vision of the subsequent visions of our lives. “It is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost.” I trust that you will be clear-eyed as you move forward.
Papa saw all that is as a gift of God: material things, what you have; your talents, what you are; and life itself. Our job is to be a good steward of those gifts. The doing of that, as he saw it, requires balance, flexibility, open-mindedness and compassion.
You are all aware that there are pitfalls inherent in having a family business. Sometimes a power struggle between persons or factions splits the family. Sometimes it is the loss of a common purpose that causes trouble. Disinterest or inattention will surely result in a slow demise. Not infrequently greed shows its ugly face. You have built-in structures to avoid those dangers, but you would do well to be ever vigilant for warning signs. I would rather that you dismantle the business than squabble over it or that your goodwill toward each other be endangered. Knowing you as I do, I don't spend time worrying about those dangers. Having a good time together is a fine antidote to them, and I have never seen you get together without doing that.
So, have a vision, seek wisdom, be good stewards and celebrate your life together. I love you very much, and thank God for you.
— Mama [Caroline Keller Winter]
Copyright 2013 by Family Business Magazine. This article may not be posted online or reproduced in any form, including photocopy, without permssion from the publisher. For reprint information, contact bwenger@familybusinessmagazine.com.
Quotable
“We've seen other family supermarket businesses who had been great and proud reach a point where they were dying on the vine. In many cases it was because, through no real fault of their own, the family lost control, lost their ability to support. They lost their ability to be good stewards. To make the right decisions or lead in the right way. We were not going to let that happen to our business. Not to this company, not to this mission, not to our people, not to our guests.”
— Matt Bumstead, co-president of Lubbock, Texas-based United Supermarkets LLC, at a press conference announcing the sale of the fourth-generation company to Albertson's LLC (KFYO.com, Sept. 9, 2013).
“I'm told there is a check and a letter in the envelope, but I can't bring myself to open the envelope because I can't wrap my arms [around] the whole thing.”
— Bobby Ford, web editor of the Winchester Star and one of the 76 long-tenured employees of the newspapers owned by the family of Virginia Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. who received bequests of $10,000 each in the late senator's will. Sen. Byrd, best known for being a staunch segregationist during the civil rights era, started working at the Star in 1935 and served on its board until his death in July at age 98. His son Thomas T. Byrd is the publisher of the paper, which the family bought in 1897 (JimRomenesko.com).
“I would highlight two kinds of courage the Grahams have shown as owners that I hope to channel. The first is the courage to say wait, be sure, slow down, get another source. Real people and their reputations, livelihoods and families are at stake. The second is the courage to say follow the story, no matter the cost. While I hope no one ever threatens to put one of my body parts through a wringer, if they do, thanks to Mrs. [Katharine] Graham's example, I'll be ready.”
— Jeff Bezos, in a memo to Washington Post employees after the announcement that he had bought the paper from The Washington Post Co., controlled by the Graham family.