Arthur E. Koegel, 78, who owned a North Side coal supply company when coal was widely used to heat apartment buildings, died Tuesday, March 26, of complications from Parkinson’s disease in The Abington of Glenview. Born in Milton, Fla., to German immigrants, Mr. Koegel learned to speak German as a boy and moved to Chicago with his family when he was 5. He grew up on the North Side and worked as a supervisor at an aluminum die-casting plant in his early 20s before going to work for Koegel Coal Co., a coal-supply company his father and brother had opened in 1934. Mr. Koegel went from driving truckloads of coal to owning the business with another brother, Edward. Together they turned the company into a seven-truck operation that supplied coal to North Side apartment buildings. Many Germans who immigrated to Chicago after World War II and got jobs as janitors liked dealing with the Koegels because they spoke German. “It would be a big help so the janitors would tell the [building] owners, `Hey, let’s call the Koegels,'” said his son Arthur. Passage of the Clean Air Act forced the company to shut down in 1973 because cleaner-burning coal was expensive and most apartment buildings switched to other fuels. Mr. Koegel spent the rest of his life investing in real estate. In the early 1990s, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but it didn’t stop him from bowling and golfing. Two years ago, he made a hole in one at Edgebrook Golf Course. Beside his son and his brother Edward, Mr. Koegel is survived by his wife of 53 years, Betty; two daughters, Janet Hammer and Tina Vesely; and two grandchildren. A service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday, in Smith-Corcoran Funeral Home, 6150 N. Cicero Ave., Chicago.
