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Business Scholarship
Warren Koeller, a 1960 graduate of the college
and the 2004 recipient of the Outstanding Tiger Alumni Award, has established
the Warren Koeller Business Scholarship. The scholarship is for a full-time
student majoring in business. The recipient also must be a graduate
of Arkansas City High School and maintain a minimum 3.0 grade-point
average. The scholarship is renewable for a second year, providing
that the criteria are maintained. With funds from a Federal Title III
Matching Grant, the scholarship totals $60,000.
Koeller, who owns one company and is president of another, went on to major in
accounting at Wichita University, graduating in 1963. He passed the Certified
Public Accountant exam in September 1965, and was well on his way to understanding
the financial side of business. That knowledge helped fuel Koeller’s entrepreneurial
spirit as he built companies from the ground up, and turned one on the brink
of bankruptcy into a huge success. Koeller is a self-taught computer network
administrator and programmer who was a CPA for Arthur Anderson until 1970, when
he left to become executive vice president of 3M Business Products, covering
Kansas and Missouri. During that time, he got the notion to install a multi-user
workstation system within the business. It became one of the first computer networks.
Koeller developed the system, offered it to realtors in the Kansas City area,
and business took off. He and a programmer formed Realty Information Systems
Company, now known as RISCO. Koeller sold the company in March 2000.
In the early 1990s, Koeller started a manufacturing division within his company
that built lock boxes realtors use when they list a house. His company manufactured
the mechanical and electronic device. After a slow start, the idea eventually
caught on, and Koeller’s company turned large profits. The lock box uses
an infrared transmitter. When a realtor uses the electronic key, information
from the box, including the identity of the realtor, the company, and the time
and date the house was shown, is transferred. A few years ago, Koeller added
another company to his portfolio. He rescued Kantronics of Lawrence from financial
disaster and has high hopes for the manufacturer of wireless data controllers.
