Kent VanGorder

By Steve Garbacz
sgarbacz@kpcmedia.com
AVILLA — Kent VanGorder was a people person, a guy who went out of his way to get to know others and make connections.
It kind of comes with the trade, when you spent 20 years running a local business, too.
VanGorder, 71, died unexpectedly Feb. 19 while on vacation in Florida. He leaves behind his wife of 54 years, a son, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Kent was the owner and operator of VanGorder Sales Inc. near the north junction of S.R. 3 and S.R. 8 in Avilla. He started the business in 1989, after leaving Allen County Tractor Sales in Fort Wayne, where he had worked with his father for 23 years.
When his father left that business, Kent decided it was time to strike out on his own.
"In 1989, that's what we did. He quit his job at Allen County Tractor and came home and, out of our garage at the farm, started VanGorder sales, his wife Susan VanGorder said.
For the past about 20 years, they've sold Grasshopper mowers, work trailers and other items in the community. The business became a nexus where the family could meet and interact with all kinds of people and Kent had a way about him that he made personal connections with so many folks.
"We've just been blessed, I don't know what else to say. We've made so many friends through the business. They weren't always customers, they were friends," Susan said. "He just touched everybody with such a kind heart."
Her husband had ability and seemed to draw people to him, Susan said. As a father and grandfather, he was a caretaker, father figure and was always there to provide for his loved ones, she said.
And for others, he was there to listen and pick people up, she said.
"He loved people. He encouraged people. If you were down, he encouraged you. He would go out of his way. We always told him he should have been a psychiatrist because people told him things," she said.
Pastor Michael DiSanto of First Christian Church in Kendallville, where the VanGorders attended, noticed that too. When he arrived in town four years ago and met Kent, Kent hooked him up a free mower to make sure he got a good start in Noble County.
He helped out the interim pastor at the church, too, so he had a place to live and was a faithful man who shared his spirit with others through his "great and warm personality," DiSanto said.
"He went out of his way to love and get to know people deeply, he was a very relational guy," DiSanto said. "He was great with that. He was awesome."
Kent is survived by his wife Susan and a son, David (Shelly) VanGorder, both of Avilla. He's also survived by his five grandchildren Kimberlee (Dustin Schemerhorn) VanGorder, Ethan (Brianne) VanGorder, Jacob VanGorder, Rickey (Brittany) Duty and Amanda (Cody) Ley, and two great-grandchildren Owen Schemerhorn and Addyson Duty.