Frank Konigseder Sr., founder and president of Liberty Coach, passed away on Thursday, Feb. 12, at age 88.
Konigseder was born in 1937 in Lake County, Illinois, to German immigrant parents who embodied the American Dream by starting a small business, F.K. Pattern & Foundry, in north Chicago, Illinois, the same year he was born. He began working there as a young boy, learning the craft and work ethic that would later shape his life and career as an entrepreneur and innovator.
As all who knew him will tell you, Konigseder had a lifelong passion for travel, the outdoors and anything with an engine. He was an accomplished sports fisherman who landed trophies across all five of the world’s oceans. He built an extensive tractor collection. And of course, he loved motorhomes, and the never-ending challenge of building a better one.
By the 1960s, Konigseder and his wife, Jeanne, had become avid campers and in 1968, spurred by their dissatisfaction with production motorhomes, decided to build their own. He purchased a used Greyhound bus and, with Jeanne and their growing sons helping, spent his spare time converting it into a custom motorcoach. Which they promptly sold and built another, and then another — and Liberty Coach was born.
A defining moment came in 1978, when Konigseder struck a deal with Andre Normand of Canadian bus manufacturer Prevost Car to begin building coaches on Prevost shells, a move that effectively launched the modern custom motorcoach conversion industry. Under his leadership, Liberty Coach went on to complete hundreds of coaches and establish a reputation for building the finest recreational vehicles in the world.
Konigseder remained active in company operations into the 21st century, and continued to run the original family foundry, F.K. Foundries, well into his later years. Liberty Coach remains a wholly family-owned business, with sons Frank Konigseder Jr. and Kurt Konigseder heading the firm since 2000 and a third generation emerging as key players in company operations. All of which speaks to the lasting impact of Frank Konigseder Sr. on his family, his company, and the industry he launched and led.
Founded over a half century ago as a backyard business in 1972, Liberty Coach is the oldest continuously operating Prevost coach convertor and widely recognized for producing the finest recreational vehicles in the world.
