Remembering 50-year 'Brainerd Dispatch' photographer Steve Kohls

BRAINERD — The Brainerd lakes area is mourning the loss of longtime newspaper photographer Steve Kohls.

Kohls died Monday, Nov. 10, after a brief stint of pancreatic cancer.

Likely hundreds of thousands of people have been captured by the lens of Steve Kohls in the more than five decades he covered local news. Kohls had a brief stint at the Lake Country Echo in Pequot Lakes and a couple of other papers. But he began his Brainerd Dispatch career in 1975 and worked there until shortly before his death.

When the Dispatch announced his passing, an outpouring of tributes rolled in from people who knew Kohls in many walks of life: as a photography instructor at Central Lakes College, a scuba diver who loved the Cuyuna mine pits and as a member of the AA community who recently celebrated 46 years of sobriety.

KAXE News Director Chelsey Perkins knew Kohls as a friend and mentor and worked with him for nine years at the Dispatch, where she was the community editor.

Chelsey Perkins

/

KAXE

"If you knew Steve, you know his laugh. He had a very distinctive and very loud laugh that you could hear. It would reverberate across the whole space," Perkins said on the KAXE Morning Show. "And it's something that I think everyone who knows him thinks about that laugh."

In 2017, he sat down with her to talk about his work for an episode of the DispatchCast, the paper's podcast at the time.

He offered advice for others to consider pursuing photography.

“If you are a young person, or a person out there, who feels like they don’t quite fit in, maybe what you need to do is learn to express yourself with a camera. When that happens — when you learn to express yourself with a camera — a lot of good things begin to happen in your life, because you suddenly become happy.”

From sporting events to first days of school, annual festivals to spontaneous gatherings, moments of triumph or devastating tragedies, Kohls saw it all and documented it as part of the first draft of history.

KAXE Morning Show host John Bauer asked Perkins what she learned from Kohls. She said he was an example of a lifelong learner who never stopped trying to sharpen his craft.

"He never stopped learning and growing and trying to improve himself as a photographer, as a person," she said. "He really just had this unbridled enthusiasm about life that we could all take lessons from, and it exuded from him."

In 2017, Perkins asked Kohls what he hoped readers would take away from his photographs in the paper.

“I take pictures for people who live in high rises, or can’t get out. And they can see what’s going on in the community — not necessarily the good, the bad, whatever," he said. “But basically, some days, we need a shot of the dog catching the Frisbee.”

Kohls is survived by his wife, Lisa Strelow Kohls, his daughter, Megan Kohls, his nephew Nathan Berge, his stepsons Bill Strelow and Aaron Strelow, his step-granddaughters Kailee Beck, Cami Strelow and Ariah Strelow, and many extended family members and friends.

A visitation will be 3-5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, at Nelson-Doran Funeral Home in Brainerd. His funeral will be 1 p.m. Monday at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Baxter and burial will follow at Brainerd’s Evergreen Cemetery at 3:30 p.m. All are welcome to attend any events.

Listen to the full conversation about Steve Kohls and his legacy above.