Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

Purdue Celebrates Pioneering Midwestern Business Leader Kirby Risk

August 1st, 2012

The late J. Kirby Risk II called himself “a small-town businessman from the banks of the Wabash.” In her newest book, Kirby’s Way: How Kirby and Caroline Risk Built their Company on Kitchen-Table Values, author Angie Klink details the compelling story of  Kirby and the creation of the Kirby Risk Corporation. The book also highlights the importance of community and charity work for Kirby and Caroline, and the compassionate way he ran his company.

Kirby cofounded his battery company in 1926 with $500 he borrowed from his father. Today, Kirby Risk Corporation is a multimillion-dollar electrical products and services industry headquartered in Lafayette, Indiana, and spanning three states. Kirby Risk is committed to  Kirby’s concept of “sacrificial service” and is now run by Kirby’s son, Jim.

Kirby’s Way is a feel-good story about a self-made man in the heart of Indiana. Klink states, “Kirby Risk may not have wanted this book. Yet he would have esteemed it as a parable, a spiritual truth that compels readers to discover certainties for themselves.”

Klink is the author of the inspiring biography Divided Paths, Common Ground: The Story of Mary Matthews and Lella Gaddis, Pioneering Purdue Women Who Introduced Science into the Home. She also authored two children’s books, Purdue Pete Finds His Hammer (about Purdue University) and I Found U (about Indiana University). Her writing has been published in numerous Chicken Soup for the Soul books. She has won forty American Advertising Federation ADDY Awards and an honorable mention in the 2007 Erma Bombeck Writing Competition. Klink has a BA in communication from Purdue University.