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Running
the
River
By Marilyn
Kukula
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When Joe
Kowalski started the IUP Outing Club in 1970, he didn’t know the
profound impact it would have on his future.
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Joe Kowalski
and family. Left to right:
daughters Sarah and Katie, wife Susan, and son Joel |
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His
experiences in the club led him into business operating Canada’s
largest whitewater rafting and resort company and a company that
runs jet boat tours on the Niagara Falls rapids. The jet boat
business is the largest of its kind in the world, he said.
It all began in the
summer of 1970, when he decided to add a minor in chemistry to his
studies as an IUP math major and attended summer school to take organic
chemistry I and II. While at IUP that summer, he read J.R.R. Tolkien’s
The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings.
“By the end of the
summer and the end of the books, I was filled with a longing for
adventure,” Kowalski said.
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When someone
suggested “shooting the rapids” on the nearby Youghiogheny River, he and
a fellow student bought a cheap raft and went to what is now Ohiopyle
State Park in southwestern Pennsylvania for his first stab at river
rafting.
“It seemed like
common sense to launch below the waterfall,” he said. “Hopping in the
raft, we headed down river. Miraculously, we survived the trip totally
unscathed. We did miss the take-out, which was only a path leading from
the river, and paddled all the way to Connellsville.”
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“Running the river was
a lot easier than public speaking.”
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That fall, he “ran
the river” as much as he could, sharing his passion for whitewater with
fellow IUP students and Theta Chi Fraternity brothers. His physical
chemistry teacher that fall was Ed Coleman, who operated a rafting
company, Laurel Highlands River Tours.
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Wilderness Tours’s first guide staff, 1976:
Sean Mannion, Joe, Jim Casilio ’72, Rob Rosenberger, Ken Czambel
’75, Paul Fogal
(select for larger view in new window) |
When Coleman started
the company, it was one of the first outfits to run raft trips down the
Youghiogheny River near what is now Ohiopyle State Park. (More on the
company, now owned by Mark and Linda McCarty, can be found on the web at
www.laurelhighlands.com.)
Kowalski told Coleman
of his plan to start an Outing Club, and asked the chemistry professor
to be the adviser. Kowalski put up posters and booked a lecture room in
Weyandt Hall.
“Expecting 25 people,
I was overwhelmed when 250 showed up,” Kowalski said. “Running the river
was a lot easier than public speaking.”
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The inaugural meeting
was a success, and Kowalski was elected president. Helping him plan
events were fellow IUP students who loved the outdoors.
Kowalski spent his
last year at IUP working as a river guide for Laurel Highlands River
Tours and leading Outing Club trips. The highlight was a trip to
Canada’s Algonquin Park, five hours northeast of Toronto.
“As adviser, Ed
attended some trips. On the Canadian trip, he and I discussed partnering
in a Canadian business when my military obligation ended,” Kowalski
said.
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Select for a photo gallery of Joe Kowalski and his river tours.
(opens in new window)
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Honorably discharged
from the U.S. Army as a captain in 1975, Kowalski began his Canadian
rafting career with Coleman. The professor, who is now deceased,
soon decided to focus his efforts in the United States, teaching at IUP
and operating the Ohiopyle raft trips.
 “I ended up staying
in Canada and slowly grew Wilderness Tours into Canada’s largest
whitewater rafting and resort company.”
That first trip to
Canada also resulted in a second business for Kowalski. The club members
stopped in Niagara to look at the rapids below the falls, a view
Kowalski would carry with him.
“Regarded as the
largest rapids on the planet, the Niagara left a lasting impression,” he
said. “Years later, I would return to Niagara to challenge the rapids in
a jet boat, which is a high-speed, jet-powered boat built for
whitewater. We opened Whirlpool Jet Boat Tours in 1992 and have
introduced a million people to the rapids of the Niagara in the past
twelve years.”
Although Kowalski’s
businesses are far from the Oak-tree lined walkways of the IUP campus,
he has left behind a legacy. The IUP Outing Club he founded is currently
active for students who enjoy camping, whitewater rafting, cave
exploring, and other adventurous outings.
Kowalski can be
reached at 1-888-RAFT NOW or
joe@wildernesstours.com,
and he would very much like to welcome his IUP alumni friends to visit him
on the Ottawa River.
(Read more at his
websites
www.wildernesstours.com and
www.whirlpooljet.com.)
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