Kevin was born in Milwaukee, WI in 1973 and moved to Elkhorn, WI in 2005. He is married with 4 children. Growing up he was not provided the ability to hunt, but he did enjoy the outdoors. Even though he didn’t hunt, he still did a lot of fishing, camping, extreme sports and other outdoor activities. As he grew up, he found himself watching his dad work in the shop carving duck decoys and making calls. In the late 90s, as his dad’s health started to decline, Dennis needed some help getting a large order completed. Kevin eagerly jumped in and started by sanding out duck calls his dad turned and tuned. As he felt more comfortable and learned more, he started making turkey box call lids and tuning them for his dad. Doing this, Kevin got hooked and caught the call making bug. He started asking more questions and finally talked his dad into showing him how to make a call. While his dad only taught him the basics, he had the learning curve of a brick wall. Due to this, many of his early calls wound up in the garbage. His father always stood over his shoulder asking him why he did what he did, at the same time telling him how he could do it better. As Kevin started making duck calls and he became more comfortable making them, he needed more of a challenge. Dennis thought the best thing to teach him was to carve. Because of the way Kevin’s mind works, he quickly learned how to carve and to create even more beautiful looking calls. His first carved call won 1st place in the novice division at the Call Makers and Collectors Association of America call making competition. He was on cloud nine. 

Over time, Kevin was lucky enough to win many awards for his Duck calls. This made Kevin want to learn more. With his dad’s help, he started creating different Turkey calls and found his true niche. Soon, he found the many styles and types of turkey calls provided him the ability to make endless possibilities for his ideas. Even though Dennis taught Kevin a lot about call making, there were some things he needed to learn on his own. Kevin started exploring more decorative techniques like checkering and laminating. He knows how to make a large variety of calls like duck calls, turkey calls, crow calls, box calls, slate calls and yelpers. He truly found his love in making turkey yelpers, which became his favorite style of call. The more he made, the more versatile his style and decorative abilities became. 

Dennis and Kevin always competed in the same call competitions. but never against each other. Kevin and his dad would talk about the competitions and figure out who would enter what so they never bumped heads. Dennis even used to joke around and told Kevin that if he ever beat him or ranked higher than him he would be kicked out of the shop. This was a long running joke that lasted about 2 years and came true In 2002 with him winning 2nd Best of Show in the duck call competition at the NWTF. Kevin had succeeded in beating his dad. Because of this, Dennis kept his word and helped Kevin to build his own shop. Even though Kevin felt disappointed, it didn’t stop him from making calls. In fact it challenged him to come up with more of his own style and creations. 

Kevin’s makes calls out a large variety of woods, from local species to types found throughout the world. His favorite wood to carve with are the multiple varieties of Walnut. He says the colors and grain really helps bring the call to life. Kevin’s favorite woods to use on yelpers are Cocobolo, Blackwood and various other dense woods. Because of Kevin’s arthritis he is currently semi-retired from making calls, he now makes a very small amount of calls every year and no longer takes orders for calls. When Kevin isn’t making calls, he works in the direct mail and marketing industry, mailing millions of pieces of mail a year for his customers. 

If you ask Kevin about his goals in call making, he will say that he has been lucky enough to reach a lot of them. But the one he will never have is the ability to reach is standing in the winners circle with his dad at a call competition. But this hasn’t let him stop him from remembering his dad being there when he needed him to be there. His dad was a fierce competitor and he instilled this into Kevin’s call making. Kevin was taught if it wasn’t blue, it wasn’t worth doing. This weighed on Kevin and, for a short period, he lost the joy in making calls. Because of this Kevin had to stop making calls for a while until he realized there is more to call making than just winning awards and selling calls. Fortunately, he found the real reason to make calls. Kevin found that the friends you create and experiences are far more important. That the smile of people that hunt using your calls and their stories meant more than anything. Once he learned this, he started creating calls and competing again, but competing wasn’t a priority anymore. One thing he developed was a desire to help and promote other call makers and found it was more important than making calls. He realized he needed to pass on what he knew so the art didn’t end with him. Kevin says it’s not just about making calls, it’s more about the call making family than anything else. Other than his dad. Kevin found Kent Freeman, Eugene Upward, James Bennett, Greg Garritzen and Earl Mickle to be his most admired call makers and collectors. The help and inspiration they gave him are priceless and he will never forget. He loves to collect both duck calls and almost anything turkey related.

One of Kevin’s biggest wishes would be to hunt with his dad again. He has so many questions and things to talk to him about. Luckily, Kevin is now able to go hunting with his daughter Natalie and carry on the experience with her. He even took time to show her how to make calls as well.