Verlen Kruger
June 30, 1922 - August 2, 2004
Happy are they who dream dreams ...
And have the courage to make them come true.
 |
Verlen Kruger was born a sharecropper's son in Pulaski County, Indiana on June 30, 1922. The second in a family of nine children, he had to quit school at age 14 to help out the struggling family in hard times.
Verlen was drafted into the Army and became a reconnaissance tank driver in World War II in 1942. Later, convincing his superiors to let him try the pilots exams, he passed the stiff requirement tests and entered the Army Air Force Flight Training School. He graduated at the top of his class as a pilot and commissioned officer. He went on to be a flight instructor and trained advanced fighter pilots. Eventually he served a tour of duty flying P-51's over Korea and Japan.
.jpg)
Verlen
met his "Sweet Genevieve" (and named a plane after her!) during his pilot
training program at Michigan State University in Lansing, and married her during
his years of service. Jenny Seavolt gave birth to their first child while Verlen
was away on duty. They, as many other military families, moved a few times
before finally settling in Lansing, Michigan. There, they made a home with their
love for each other and their faith in Jesus Christ. Their family grew to nine
children as Verlen got his plumbing license and turned the cow barn into a
successful plumbing business.
There was no inkling of what was to come... until, at age 41, he discovered canoeing in the backwoods of Ontario, and later set off on his first major expedition, The Cross Continent Canoe Safari. He had found what he was born to do. Destiny began to work its subtle magic . . .
Verlen Kruger is a canoeist extraordinaire, an explorer at heart, a photographer, author, lecturer, and a canoe designer and builder.
He is a traveling man, a Voyager, who is happiest when he is moving. He had been to all 50 states before ever discovering the canoe. Since then he has re-discovered all but 2 states by canoe.
He has broken nearly every long distance world record in the book
(and a few that aren't !).
Kruger has already paddled a lifetime total of over 100,000 miles. That's over 30,000 miles more than anyone else in the history of the world according to the Guinness Book of Records. The Ultimate Canoe Challenge is the all time longest journey ever made by canoe, at 28,043 miles, And the Two Continent Canoe Expedition was the second longest, at 18,232 miles.
On his many expeditions he has seen the world as no one else ever has: from a canoe. The canoe was Verlen's home, part of nature, close to all that is around him and in tune with the harmony of the environment . It is where he belonged.
Verlen has gone far beyond where any person has ever gone thanks to his canoes. He has paddled and portaged under his own power the equivalent to nearly 3 1/2 times around the world. Very few explorers in history have traveled comparable distances. These miles covered in a small canoe rival even those of Christopher Columbus in all his many voyages of discovery across oceans.
It is true that a ship in a harbor is safe,
but that is not what ships are made for . . .