Saturday, May 9, 1998

Company chairman gives and gives and gives

By Ken Garfield / Knight Ridder Newspapers

When Fred Wikoff Jr. gets to heaven, let's hope the good Lord doesn't ask him to wax eloquent about why he devoted so much of his wealth to helping others.

Here's the best Wikoff could come up with when I asked him: "My wife says it's all the glory. I don't know what the hell it is."

Wikoff isn't one of those do-gooders with a carefully crafted explanation for why he helps others.

To be sure, he has worked his way into a position to do good. Founder and chairman of Wikoff Color Corp. in Fort Mill, S.C., he has built a successful printing ink company that employs 480 workers at 29 plants. His company manufactures ink used on food packaging, brochures and annual reports. On a tour of the plant, I commented about the foul smell of ink. Wikoff, 76, smiled and said, "Smells like gold to me."

But making money and using it for good don't always go hand in hand. The world is full of CEOs who blow it all on Cadillacs. To his credit, and on the advice of his tax folks, Wikoff has taken his fortune in a better direction.

His $428,000 gift in 1979 helped get the Family Center going on its crusade to fight child abuse and neglect. He gives at least $10,000 each year. He gave the Charlotte nonprofit agency 624 acres in Lancaster County, S.C., appraised at $1.2 million. The center may turn it into a summer camp.

Beyond helping the Family Center, he has awarded $92,000 in college scholarships to the children of Wikoff Color employees. His company, in fact, isn't really his company. His family owns 20 percent of the stock. The rest has been sold to employees in the belief that ownership inspires loyalty.

That loyalty is evident in all the cheerful "Good morning, Mr. Wikoffs" you hear as you walk through his plant. "I think he has a heart for people," said Bobby Featherstone, who runs the maintenance department.

Wikoff appreciated the kind words. Kind of.

"I didn't bring him here for a eulogy," he said to Featherstone.

The Wikoffs are co-chairing the Family Center's annual Best of Charlotte fund-raising party on May 8. I figured the big bash was reason enough to drive down to his ink plant and get some lofty quotes about charity.

Instead, I drove home with an empty notebook.

He attends Myers Park Presbyterian in Charlotte, N.C., but not often enough to find much inspiration. He and his wife love their five children and seven grandchildren, but it's not like they give in their honor: "I'm not embroiled with 'em." Nearly killing himself when he wrecked a small airplane in 1995 didn't help him see the light either. "You aren't here forever" is about all the philosophy he could muster.

He isn't even one of those philanthropists who craves anonymity: "I like my name on a building."

I must admit, the empty notebook scared me at first. Doesn't a person have to be able to articulate good reasons for doing good things? After spending several hours in search of Fred Wikoff's reasons, I'm thinking that maybe the answer is no.

Maybe in a world in need of more goodness, motivation doesn't matter as much as action. Maybe all that matters is this:

Somewhere along the line, a spark was lit in Wikoff's soul. Could be God had a hand in starting it. Could be it started on its own. Could be it doesn't matter what started it as long as it keeps on burning.

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(Ken Garfield is the religion editor at The Charlotte Observer. Write to him at: The Charlotte Observer, 600 S. Tryon St., Charlotte, NC 28232.)

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(c) 1998, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).

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