
Any one who remembers doing business at Amsterdam’s Kelly Lumber Company when it operated on Edwards Street remembers Louis Kern. While it was the Kelly family that ran the business end of the company it was Louis Kern who supervised Kelly’s well stocked and supremely managed yard. He worked there for 37 years. He was born in Amsterdam in 1926. His mom was a Bundy. He was a WWII Veteran, serving in a tank battalion that helped invade Germany toward the close of the war. He married his wife Lucia in 1948 and they raised two children. As you might expect based upon his years working with lumber, Kern was also a skilled carpenter himself. He died in August of 2011.