Terry Kohler was born on May 14, 1934, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. His father was Walter J. Kohler, Jr. (1904–76), a sales executive at the Kohler Company, president of The Vollrath Company, and a three-term Governor of Wisconsin. His mother was Marie Celeste McVoy Kohler (1900-1974), a Chicago socialite who had been married and divorced and had one child. Terry’s sister is Charlotte Nicolette Kohler (1936-2012). The Kohlers divorced in 1946 and Terry was raised by his father at Windway, his parents’ estate not far from the Kohler factory in the village of Kohler. In 1952, Kohler graduated from the Admiral Farragut Academy. In 1962, he received a bachelor of science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, majoring in industrial management. A year later he earned an MBA in the same field from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Terry Kohler married Diana Prange (1932-1991) of Sheboygan in 1956, and they had three daughters. The couple divorced in 1976. In 1981, Terry Kohler married Mary Simpson, the mother of four sons. An outdoor sports enthusiast, Kohler raced sports cars in the mid-1960s, and spent six years on the National Ski Patrol. Kohler has sailed and raced sailboats for more than six decades, winning numerous trophies. He is a past Commodore of the Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation. He was also awarded the Nathanael Herreshoff Trophy by US Sailing in 2009.

Terry Kohler’s full-time association with the Vollrath Company began in 1963. In 1976, he became the seventh president of the company. Kohler became chairman of the board and chief executive officer in 1982. Under Kohler’s leadership, the company expanded dramatically. In July 1984, Lowell North sold his famous sailmaking company to Kohler, and in January 1989, North Sails and the Vollrath Company became separate corporations under the Windway Capital Corporation, a holding company. Kohler is President and Chairman of the Board of Windway Capital Corporation, Chairman of North Technology Group, and is on the board at Vollrath. Kohler died at his home in Sheboygan on September 20, 2016 at the age of 82.