William Andrew Korbel
October 30, 1923 ~ August 2, 2008
(Pictured at right from the 1941 Spy)
The following article by Amy Rabideau Silvers originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel online, posted on Thursday, August 7, 2008.
William A. Korbel soared in life, love as pilot, father
Given the high-flying nature of his professional life, William A. Korbel seemed to inspire unusual prose when he made headlines.
He was called a “soldier of fortune” and “a jet pilot of an adventurous nature.” Joining the campaign staff of his old friend, then-U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, Korbel became “a mystery man in Wisconsin politics.”
Always, he was described as urbane, poised, polished. He was the “stocky, handsome bachelor” – at least until he fell in love with a woman named Constance Daniell.
Korbel, who had congestive heart failure, died Saturday, August 2, 2008, nine months after his wife of 32 years died. He was 84.
“I want to say he died of a broken heart,” said Tina Daniell, who became a daughter to him. “He didn’t want to go on after my mother died.”
He grew up in Kenosha, the third of four children born to Slovak immigrants.
“He would talk about all the ethnic groups in Kenosha, all the Italians, Slovaks, Polish, Greeks, Lithuanians. He was proud to be from Kenosha,” Daniell said.
At 18, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II, learning to fly before he was 20. He served as a pilot instructor in Georgia and Alabama.
Once discharged from the service, Korbel went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison. His studies were interrupted when he was recalled during the Korean War. Korbel flew more than 100 missions as a fighter pilot in Korea.
Back at UW, he earned both his bachelor’s degree and a law degree by 1955. He also met Nelson, then a state senator, and the two became friends for life.
Korbel joined a small television production company. He took a two-year sailing trip with a friend down the Mississippi River and to the Bahamas. He flew surplus jets to Mexico for a Canadian firm, also helping to train Mexican pilots.
In 1962, he worked in Nelson’s successful campaign for the U.S. Senate.
Korbel did a stint in legal practice, but that proved a bit tame. In 1966, he began working in Southeast Asia for Air America, the civilian airline heavily financed by the Central Intelligence Agency during the Vietnam War.
He made headlines in 1973 – “Soldier of Fortune Joins Nelson Staff” – as Nelson campaigned for re-election to the U.S. Senate.
“I can tell you that, to the best of my knowledge, I never was involved in CIA work,” Korbel said then, explaining most of his flying missions were for civilian projects handled by the Agency for International Development. “I didn’t see any of that cloak-and-dagger stuff.”
Eventually, Korbel became disillusioned with the Vietnam War effort.
“I was especially disturbed by the waste of our money and the corruption, with no real attempt to stop it,” he said.
“I guess you might say I converted him,” quipped Nelson, an outspoken opponent of American involvement in the war.
In 1975, Korbel married Constance Daniell, a longtime reporter and editor with The Milwaukee Journal.
“He really set his cap for her,” Tina Daniell said. “He had always been a bachelor. He married Connie and inherited the three of us and our pets. He was a great father and a great grandfather. I think that was a great joy to him.”
Other survivors include daughters Laurie Daniell and Wendy Rhodes; grandchildren; and great-grandchildren.
A memorial gathering will be held from 9:30AM today until the service at 11:00AM, both at Central United Methodist Church (639 N. 25th Street, Milwaukee).