Overview

A modern-day explorer takes on the Antarctic, the business world, and eventually the U.S. Government. Ben Koether was born into a boating community on the edge of Long Island Sound, learning to maneuver a small penguin class sailboat on his own through the fog by the time he was eight years old. The water became his playground. He would go on to spend an entire summer on the Atlantic when he was fourteen, helping to sail the famous VEMA, captained by none other than the renowned Lou Kenedy. But the beginning of his greatest adventures took place in 1959, when he set sail for the uncharted waters of the Antarctic and became the youngest navigator of the then largest Icebreaker in US History. His exploits there earned him a bay named in his honor: Koether Inlet on the north coast of Thurston Island. This is the story of a modern-day explorer, a throwback to the earliest seafaring adventurers, and how his life's journey led him from Pelham, New York, to the Antarctic, to the edge of the Bay of Pigs invasion, and, later, to a position on President Nixon's inauguration team and a meteoric rise through the business world. In the end, Ben finds himself fighting for the life of the USS GLACIER, the very ship he navigated and fell in love with on the Antarctic Ocean. Ben Koether is a businessman, a sailor, a husband, and father of three children: Roz, George, and Christian. He founded (FAST.) in his garage in 1969. He now lives in Fort Lauderdale with his wife Joan, where he is never more than a stone's-throw away from the water.

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Ben is the retired chairman of KitchenBrains - AKA Food Automation-Service Techniques, Inc., the electronics manufacturing and software company he founded 54 years ago, and now a global firm dedicated to the world's quick service restaurant chains.Ben's enterprises include restoration of a collection of US Navy boats, local and national politics, and forming and leading a national veterans group, the Glacier Society, whose mission began as a means to restore and resurrect the USS Glacier AGB-4 and which continues to provide education in seamanship, environmental studies, and fellowship for the veterans who were instrumental in the Antarctic Exploration by the Navy (Operation Deep Freeze) and Arctic Exploration by the Coast Guard.Ben began sailing in a Penguin class dinghy on Long Island Sound at the close of WWII. As a teen, he shipped out as a seaman AB aboard the 225 foot schooner, the VEMA, conducting scientific research for the US Navy under the direction of the Lamont-Daugherty Laboratory at Columbia University.He subsequently received his BA degree from Brown University and a Commission in the Navy, where he served as GunBoss, Navigator and Scientific Officer aboard the USS Glacier AGB-4, participating in Operation Deep Freeze exploring the Antarctic. Ben, as navigator, led numerous US Naval military and supply convoys, oceanic and marine explorations, navigating the deepest penetration of the Bellingshausen Sea and charting Thurston Island where he delineated Porter's Pinnacles and a bay subsequently named Koether Inlet (1961). He also was key in the rescue of the famed explorer Sir Vivian Fuchs (1959).Following his military service, Mr. Koether received his MBA in Finance and Marketing from Columbia University. He participated in the development of the first electronic point of sale cash register for McDonald's Corp. in 1967. Later as an entrepreneur, he introduced the first solid-state cooking computers to the food service industry, earning Ben his first of now more than 40 US and European patents.Ben is an active member of countless professional, industrial and community organizations. He is a former chairman of the CT/NY Council and former Director of the American Electronics Assoc. He is a member of the Ft Lauderdale Yacht Club, a life member of the Navy League and the Lone Sailor Foundation, and a member of the Naval War College Foundation.

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