K.D. Pool

1931 - 2006

K.D. Pool, 75, died Thursday afternoon, Aug. 17, 2006, at his home in Cleburne.

Funeral: A public funeral followed by a graveside ceremony will be held 10 a.m. Monday at the family home, 1301 County Road 429 in Cleburne. Visitation: 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Rosser Funeral Home, 1664 W. Henderson in Cleburne.

Memorials: K.D. asked those who wish to make a donation, in lieu of flowers, to the Gaila and K.D. Pool Endowment Fund at Happy Hill Farm and Academy.

A young man of 12 decided he wanted to have new clothes and new shoes to wear to school. Foretelling the man he would become, this young man decided that he would take responsibility. So he arranged to work for a neighbor, helping to milk his cows, but he had to do his own chores first each day on the farm where he lived.

That young man, then, begin to trade a windmill, a pony, a car...and so the story of K.D. Pool began.

K.D. Pool died having "been blessed to have lived a life most people can't even dream of." He spent his life envisioning, building and nurturing business enterprises spanning dozens of companies and states from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean and numerous industries.

As is true of real life, not everything went the way he wanted or expected. But he persisted so long as there was a chance, and when there wasn't he stood up and started anew.

Nearly 30 years ago K.D. found his place in life, a small community in North Texas called Cleburne. He came to help a friend and found a home.

If we only acknowledged the business of K.D., we would miss most of the picture. Ultimately, K.D.'s life was about people --particularly it was about the guy next door. While he encountered the famous and powerful, it was the real people who make up a community that he attended to. He built business to provide them with homes, cars, carpet and financing. He had faith in those people and in his ability to judge them.

The stories of how K.D. gave people a chance are innumerable. He did so not with an attitude of handouts but with an expectation that they take personal responsibility and treating them with dignity when they did so.

K.D. built his Cleburne businesses, serving the housing needs of those with less income and those who needed a fresh start. He organized a group of like-minded business owners who became known as the "Buyer's Group," providing them with the ability to leverage their collective size to negotiate more effective pricing from vendors, allowing them to offer the homes at lower prices.

He eventually orchestrated the sale of those businesses to a large national corporation. Not being one to sit by and watch life go by, he then began to take homes that needed work and refurbish and offer those homes back to those who needed them.

He leaves K.D.'s Land Company as a thriving enterprise under the guidance of his son and in the hands of his devoted employees with homes in communities all around Cleburne.

Throughout this rich and often tumultuous life, he was accompanied by a wife he adored, Gaila Pool. They had two sons, Ken and Vince. He and Gaila held on to each other as they faced the early death of Vince from a random act of violence.

He also became a doting grandfather to Melissa and Nick, the children of Ken. At the time of his death he was fine-tuning that skill with his great-granddaughter, Kelsey.

Parties and good times that were enjoyed by visitors to K.D. and Gaila's home were legendary. He reveled in sharing good times with friends. He also had a real love of traveling and always counted himself blessed for all the world he got to see, from Europe to Russia to China to the Holy Lands.

Knowing his life was coming to an end, K.D. and Gaila contacted Happy Hill Farm Academy. This was a local program they had supported for several years. Happy Hill Farm Academy serves at-risk children. "Giving our children a chance to grow up in a Christian setting is the future for our community," according to K.D.

This summer they donated their 149-acre home and farm with miniature horses to Happy Hill Farm Academy to serve as a Johnson County campus to expand the ministry they so admired. It was his last gift to the community he called home.

Survivors: K.D. is survived by all the lives he touched and by Gaila, his wife and partner of 56 years; his loving son, Dr. Ken Pool and his wife, Terese; his grandchildren, Melissa Pool, Nick Pool and Brendan Hieber; Melissa's daughter, Kelsey; Tawnee Bicknell with her husband, Shawn, and their children, Audree and Boston; and loving relatives too numerous to name.