He’s a Real Hero
community involvement, culture, kevin hermening, u.s. embassy,
Wausau financial planner Kevin Hermening is a big advocate of volunteerism. That spirit of self-giving was sparked by events that unfolded in his life 30 years ago.
In 1979, when Hermening was just 20 years old, he was the youngest of 52 Americans held hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Iran for 444 days during the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini – an event now known as the Iran Hostage Crisis.
“It’s partly because of that situation that I’ve dedicated a good part of my life to community service and volunteerism, in addition to raising a family and running a business,” says Hermening, managing partner of Hermening Financial Group LLC.
A husband and father of two teenage girls, Hermening served on the school board for 10 years and serves on the board of directors of the local Junior Achievement chapter. He is a member of local civic organizations, helps sponsor several community events and is an accomplished public speaker, having addressed more than 3,000 audiences nationwide about his hostage experience.
“I want to thank people for not forgetting about us over there and for giving us such a warm welcome back to freedom,” Hermening says.
As a hostage, Hermening spent 43 days in solitary confinement in a 5-by-10-foot cell. Another memory that stands out was learning of the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen in a failed rescue attempt. “I was in awe that people would volunteer to come into a dangerous place to try to rescue someone they didn’t even know,” he says.
Today, Hermening’s independent financial planning and investment advisory firm works with more than 500 families and manages $90 million in client assets.
“We work with many of our clients for a lifetime, in good times and bad,” he says. “We counsel them on asset management, college planning and retirement planning. We hold their hands at times and cheer with them other times.”
Despite his heroic past, Hermening says he’s glad to finally be known more for his work in the Wausau community than as a former hostage in Iran.
“I spent 15 years trying to reach the point where my notoriety was based on things other than that experience,” he says. “That experience certainly made me who I am, and it was a defining event in my life, but I don’t dwell on it, and it doesn’t define me. I’m a pretty complex Kevin Hermening.”
Story by Jessica Mozo
Photo by J. Kyle Keener
