Fastenal Founder and former Minnesota State Senator Bob Kierlin died on Feb. 10 at the age of 85.

Kierlin was chairman of the board since the company’s founding in 1968 and is the company’s founder. He retired from the board in 2014.

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He also served as the company’s CEO from 1968 to 2002 and its president from 1968 to July 2001. Beyond his corporate role, he was a Minnesota State Senator from 1999 to 2007.

Kierlin — alongside fellow Winona, MN entrepreneurs Jack Remick, Van McConnon and Steve Slaggie — launched Fastenal in 1967 as a small hardware business.

Hear Kierlin explain the company’s founding in this company video from 2017:

Kierlin has long been credited as a pioneer in industrial vending, with his original vision for the company primarily sell fasteners from vending machines.

Fastenal expanded out of Winona during the 1970s to become a regional distributor in the U.S. upper Midwest, and had 30 stores by the early 1980s. Fastenal went public in 1987 and was operating 200 stores nationally by 1992, scaling to 324 by the end of 1994. By the time Kierlin retired as CEO in 2002, the company had over 1,100 store locations, including a strong presence across Canada and had entered Mexico.

Kierlin’s original vending vision took off for Fastenal in 2010 when the company began selling vending machines to large customers. It’s now a core component of the business, with over 100,000 installed units across 25 countries.

Beyond Fastenal, Kierlin’s philanthropic efforts included supporting youth programs and education and founding major art organizations including the Minnesota Marine Art Museum and the forthcoming Minnesota Masterpiece Hall.

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