Dr. H.J. Kolb, or Doc, as he was known in St. Joseph was honored Saturday as the village rededicated his namesake park.
Residents took to social media to remembered their hometown doctor and former mayor as very calm, soft-spoken and having a good bedside manner. Other residents remembered how he would take care of his patients day or night and felt comfortable enough walking into patients houses unannounced to check on them.
Kolb was more than a small town doctor. He was a fixture in the village.
Carol Erb said she remembered watching him stitch up a nasty cut her child got from a weed hook.
“Of course it wasn’t during office hours, but we were grateful for his expertise,” she said.
Micki Suits worked with Kolb in the years before he retired. Suits said the doctor made house calls regularly and came in on his days off if he was needed.
“He was an excellent teacher which I really appreciated as a new nurse,” she said.
Kolb would often drive his patients to the hospital in bad weather to give birth.
Jean Butler said that due to extreme cold weather her parents’ car would not start so Kolb picked them up and drove them to the former Burnham Hospital for her birth on Jan. 6, 1952.
He did the same thing just months early for Gay Rosnett’s parents. Rosnett’s parents and Kolb made it to Burnham with 7 minutes to spare in November 1951.
During her speech on Saturday, mayor Tami Fruhling-Voges said the park was named after a very special man in Village history. Kolb was mayor of St. Joseph for 14 years from 1958 to 1972.
“Although a lot of good things happened for the Village when Doc Kolb was mayor, that is not what he is most remembered for,” Fruhling-Voges said.
“Doc is remembered as a great doctor for the Village.”
Fruhling-Voges said Kolb saw most every family in the Village at one time or another.
“He was tireless,” she said. “He thought nothing of working all day in his office, making house calls, going to the hospital for his patients, and being at the high school on Friday nights in case someone was hurt and needed a doctor.”
Fruhling-Voges said Kolb was recognizable because of his mustache, glasses, and small, fast sports car.
“The Village of St. Joseph was very lucky to have Doc Kolb as mayor but even more fortunate to have him as a Village physician,” she said.
The Village received grant funding to improve the facilities at the park with the help of the Champaign County Forest Preserve. The park will serve as the trailhead of the Kickapoo Rail Trail.
“I am so pleased that the park facilities have been updated and improvements made,” Fruhling-Voges said. “It is a park that will see many, many people in the future. I am so happy to rededicate it to one of the Village’s treasures and a huge part of the Village’s history, “Doc” H.J. Kolb.”
