Butler man brought many ‘Good Things to Life’
Carl Yankowski held administrative positions with many companies that created products and marketing campaigns recognized worldwide.
Throughout it all, Yankowski remembered his friends and family back in Butler, and frequently sent them the products he was working on, including Bose speakers, Reebok shoes and the first high-performance cassette tapes.
“I watched him from a distance and he would send new things from his jobs to his mother, Helen,” said Bob Rock, a lifelong friend of Yankowski who is from Butler. “He sent her one of the new Sony TVs in the 1990s. Everyone had just one TV back then — she had one in the kitchen.”
Yankowski, who grew up in Butler and went on to lead companies including Palm which designed the PalmPilot, died May 13 at Butler Memorial Hospital at the age of 74. He was the last surviving member of his immediate family, and was preceded in death by his parents. His funeral was Wednesday, May 17
Yankowski graduated from Butler Senior High School in 1966, and went on to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning two simultaneous degrees in electrical engineering and management.
Throughout his 33-year career, Yankowski would work in high-level positions for many well-known companies, including Procter & Gamble, Memorex, PepsiCo, General Electric, Cadbury Schweppes, Polaroid, Sony, Reebok and Palm Inc.
While at Memorex, he was part of the development of the successful “Is It Live or Is It Memorex” campaign. While at PepsiCo, he worked on the “Pepsi Challenge” marketing campaign. While at General Electric, he helped develop the “Spacemaker” line of products and the “We Bring Good Things to Life” campaign.
Rock said he would keep in touch with Yankowski throughout their lives, as the two went from next door neighbors to colleagues. Upon Yankowski’s visits home, his claims of working on advertising campaigns were often met with shaking heads, according to Rock.
“Any time I would talk to him he would mention the commercials he worked on,” Rock said. “He would share with people about wherever he was and they'd shake their heads until they looked it up.”
Yankowski’s proficiency with technology was evident from a young age, Rock said, starting with building model train sets to constructing his own stereo speaker from scratch. Rock said Yankowski read a lot of books as a child, and his father worked at Armco, which he suspects is where his interest in technology began.
Bob Miseyka, Yankowski’s younger cousin who is originally from Butler and now lives outside Chicago, said Yankowski was often the smartest person in the room, and participated in many school extracurricular activities as well.
“He played the clarinet, he enjoyed that a lot,” Miseyka said. “He won national debate contests in high school, I remember.”
Despite his educational proficiency, Miseyka said his cousin was a friendly person.
“Carl was pretty easygoing,” Miseyka said. “He was never the type to demand things.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, said he also knew Yankowski from a young age, and said he was always “one step ahead of the curve.”
“His passions for marketing and technology produced incredible results for the companies that grew and prospered under his leadership,” Kelly said. “Carl made the City of Butler and Butler High School so proud.”
Miseyka said Yankowski’s penchant for working and coming up with ideas will be missed, but so will his dedication for keeping in touch with his loved ones.
Miseyka said he is still learning new things about his cousin’s life, in part because Yankowski’s involvement in high-level companies was so vast.
“To him it was just all part of the process, and he's talking about the things he knew but he was leaving out things (about his work),” Miseyka said. “He would call me up and chat a little bit, and that speaks to him I think.”
