CAT Tracks for May 13, 2003 EVANSVILLE COURIER ON STEVE KOHN

One of Steve's daughters found the following article and took the time to share. Thanks, Katey!

Courageous dad is a real Superman to his son

May 10, 2003

The storms can take my house. The wind and the rain and the hail and the tornadoes can do what they will to my yard and my car and my garage and even myself.

What worries me most every time I hear the emergency sirens blare is not whether or not the worst of Mother Nature's wrath will be brought down upon me or anything I own.

I worry most about what will happen to my son.

I try to tell myself that, in the worst moments, the thin ledge between life and death, I would gladly cash in the rest of my life to make sure my son can go on.

No one knows what will really happen, how we will actually react, until that time comes.

But Steve Kohn knew. And now, so does his 8-year-old son, Danny.

When hell came to Southern Illinois in the dark of the night Tuesday, Steve Kohn didn't shrink in fear.

According to an article in Thursday's Southern Illinoisan newspaper, Kohn - a teacher at Cairo High School - was home with his family in Grand Chain when a severe storm ripped through Pulaski County near the Illinois-Kentucky border.

When things got bad, Steve Kohn and his family took cover. Literally. Steve was "lying on top of his son when the chimney in his home collapsed," the newspaper reported.

In the midst of the falling debris, Danny Kohn suffered two broken arms.

Steve Kohn was killed by the impact.

When the storm came, Steve Kohn met it face to face. When the world collapsed on him, he stood up to it to make sure his son was safe.

When I was young and growing up in Warrick County, Ind., I heard that there was a town called Metropolis in Southern Illinois. It's about 25 miles from Grand Chain.

Each year Metropolis has a celebration for Superman, the comic book hero who resided in a booming city of the same name. How neat, I thought as a youngster, that a place could have Superman living nearby.

Protection would never be a question. He was the man of steel, faster than a speeding bullet and afraid of nothing.

As it turns out, Superman didn't live in Metropolis. Superman was a teacher at Cairo High School, married with a son.

- Ryan Reynolds

ryanr@evansville.net