MOKENA, IL — When 17-year-old Tony Kroll met 16-year-old Mary Poznanski, he playfully picked her up and threw her in Lake Michigan—not knowing her fear of water.
Somehow, she still found him endearing.
The simple flirtation would spark the start of a love story that has spanned more than 60 years—a partnership rich with adventure, love, family, and passion for business. A life meticulously chronicled in hundreds of photo albums lining a wall of their Mokena basement.
A life story, two of their sons say, characterized by their father's bold moves, work ethic, and belief in himself.
With Mary by his side and always in his corner, Tony E. Kroll built several corporations and a reputation that has rippled through generations, reaching across the real estate market throughout the Lincoln-Way area. His family's name became synonymous with the business, with his sons and daughter also pursuing careers in real estate.
Kroll's Century 21 office was a beacon in New Lenox, situated near the corner of Haven and Cedar roads. The parcel on which the building sat was purchased by the Village to facilitate a roundabout there, perhaps a fitting end for an office that housed a real estate leader who had an evolving vision for land in the area.
"Mom and Dad came from a simple upbringing," son Tony Z. Kroll said, "and after Dad served in Vietnam, they argued potato chips weren't in the budget when we were kids and since have had six or seven corporations, developed several subdivisions in the Lincoln-Way area and built 100+ homes in the area as well."
The Krolls' accomplishments are visible in streets named after Tony—"Kingsway Avenue" in Royal Meadows subdivision, a subdivision Kroll helped develop—and other known footprints in the Lincoln-Way area.
In January, after nearly 50 years in business in the real estate industry, Kroll retired, but the family name remains. His children Tony Z., 54, and Jim, 50, now front Kroll Realty Group—also known as KRG Real Estate. Kroll's daughter, Tia Kroll-Triezenberg, 48, also works as an agent under the KRG name; his youngest son, Bob, 47, is an agent with 808 Realty. Several younger family members have also picked up the passion. His children laud Kroll's vision for creating a lasting legacy—a remarkable story that can be traced deep back into his roots.
And if you had asked some around him in his teen years, they would have never seen his success coming.
Tony Kroll made an impact even at birth, weighing in at 13.5 pounds.
"It was 'King Kroll,' day one,'" son Tony Z. Kroll — referred to as "Z." moving forward — said with a laugh, referring to his father's nickname. "Kroll," or "król," means "King" in Polish, he explained.
Kroll grew up on the South Side of Chicago and attended De La Salle High School. His parents were of modest beginnings, he stressed, having never owned a car. Mary also grew up in the area, attending St. Joseph High School. Her parents shared similar circumstances.
When Kroll decided he wouldn't attend college, his teachers and the Brothers of the Christian Schools scolded him.
"'You're not going to have a good life,'" he recalls them warning him. "'You're just not going to have it.'"
Kroll relayed what he'd heard to his older brother, who was in the Marine Corps. His brother dismissed the comment.
"'... You're going to make him look like he was standing still,'" he remembers his brother encouraging him. "And he always brought me up, and so did my parents. And that's what got us going."
Shortly after, Kroll also enlisted in the Marine Corps.
"Everybody was running from it in 1966," he said, but he enlisted and volunteered for deployment to Vietnam. Kroll was assigned to air combat intelligence and soon was a helicopter gunner, promoted to sergeant by age 20. He had some near misses—shots fired at the helicopter that landed near where he was seated—and was exposed to napalm as he flew through the "cloud of black."
"It tasted like charcoal," Kroll said, "and we couldn't eat for three days after you smelled it."
The exposure has taken years to impact Kroll's health, with some side effects now surfacing.
"... that's why it was time for Mom and Dad to enjoy everything they've built," Z said.
"Things came to us. It just seemed to come to us"
Kroll and Mary went on to have four children—Tony, Jim, Cynthia (known as 'Tia) and Bob—and 15 grandchildren, with one great-grandchild to date.
The decades along the way were built on hard work and grit, Kroll said.
The family lived in a bungalow in Burbank until 1980. Before becoming a full-time realtor, Kroll was a traveling salesman for Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. The gig came with a company car, guaranteed salary, and benefits. He sold real estate on the side for extra income. But still, times were tight, the Kroll brothers recall.
"I remember our parents arguing potato chips weren't in the budget when we were kids," Z said. "I'm not kidding about that. ... I would get teased in grade school that I had Kmart gym shoes, and we were proud of whatever we had because our parents gave us what they could."
In 1980, the family moved from Burbank to Mokena, and Kroll set his sights on passing his broker's exam to be a manager or owner. Meanwhile, he and two others started up Carousel Realty in New Lenox.
"And he was still working for the railroad and doing polka band jobs on the accordion to make some money," Z said.
When management at the railroad learned of his side job, they pressed Kroll to commit fully to them.
"They said, 'So you've got two choices here today: either leave the railroad or leave your real estate,'" Kroll recalled. "I shook his hand. I said, 'Thank you for 15 years. I'll go with the real estate.'"
As he left behind the security of that job and faced the uncertainty of the real estate industry, he was undaunted. He had faith that his passion and hard work would win out—that, and opportunity
"Things came to us," he said. "It just seemed to come to us."
At news of Kroll's career move, a business partner 20 years his senior offered Kroll his share in Carousel Realty. The deal included his business ownership and two buildings—the one at Cedar and Haven—for $25,000. Kroll didn't have the money to buy him out, he told him. That didn't matter to the partner, who laid out a five-year plan for Kroll to pay him.
"I paid him back in two," Kroll said.
The rest, as his sons would say, would become their history.
Kroll became affiliated with Century 21 for the brand recognition. Mary worked closely alongside him, answering the phones, keeping the books and placing ads in newspapers.
It was an endless grind, as Mary steadied the ship with a deep faith in her husband.
"Well, we worked together as a team," Mary said.
Their mother is being modest, Jim Kroll said.
"One of the things that I always remember Dad saying, and this is a compliment to Mom because we're talking a lot about Dad," he said, "but he had the perfect partner. He had a partner in life that was always supportive. Dad always says he got lucky because he had the perfect partner in life. Mom never doubted him."
Together, their work laid the foundations for seven corporations. Signs of their influence are spotted across New Lenox, in subdivisions and street names. Development company Royal Developers with Kroll's business partner Jim Hoop, built the Royal Meadows subdivision in 1994, where you can see the street Kingsway named after him.
"'Kingsway' is because that was my dad's way to develop his other land," Z said. "So that's why Kingsway is named the way it is in Royal Meadows."
At some point, all the Kroll siblings lived either in Royal Meadows or within a block's vicinity. Z lived on "Kroll Court"— a street also named after his family.
Kroll and business partner, attorney and longtime friend Doug Schlak then later built Horizon Meadows in 2002.
The Kroll name was behind corporations including Carousel Realty, Carousel Insurance, CENTURY 21 Pride Realty, CENTURY 21 Kroll Realty, King Builders, Royal Developers
Vista Investments, Kroll/Schlak Partnership, AMK Properties
and Glacial Trail LLC.
From early on, the Kroll business was a family one. Z and his siblings were tasked with cleaning the offices, emptying garbage cans, and scrubbing the toilets. But they also learned the inner workings of the business.
"We were balancing the escrow account as teenagers," Z said. "So we would talk about that at the dinner table, you know, like the family business."
As their real estate agency flourished, Kroll leapt at land purchases and development opportunities as King Builders and other entities. Along the way, the siblings learned invaluable lessons in work ethic and focus—their father's success attained despite what some had told him in his teenage years.
"For someone that, you know, maybe doesn't see himself going to college—he figured it out," Jim Kroll said. "Like everything came to him, but Mom and Dad figured it out. And everybody asked us if we went to college or anything. Well, they were our professors.
"Everybody asks us if we were in boot camp. I said, well, 'boot camp's only a couple of weeks. I've had it for 21 years.' So, Dad was tough on us, and he kept us in line and made sure we always had good work ethic."
The bond with their parents has been forged deep through trials and triumphs. They've taken countless family trips—beach vacations to Mexico, fishing trips to Canada—that have filled thousands of photo album pages. Time well-spent traveling now seems a reward for their parents' dedication and success: hard-earned and well-deserved.
"It was a tough life," Z said, "but these are our best friends. ... That life they provided for us had that structure, that discipline. But it also had a lot of fun."
"This is pretty good hearing all this stuff," Kroll interjected, with a smile.
Z and Jim Kroll hope their family's story reminds people that hard work brings lofty goals within reach.
"If you set your mind to it, you can achieve it," Jim Kroll said. "If you put the work in, you set your mind to it—don't let anybody doubt you—because he had people doubt him."
With Kroll retired, now they'll enjoy some well-earned downtime, including family gatherings at the Mokena home he designed—a show of gratitude for the deep support and faith Mary has shown in him.
"This was my gift to Mary," Kroll said. "Because Mary never asked for anything."
'Keep the Kroll name going'
With Kroll retired, Z and Jim Kroll have set their sights on continuing the family's legacy in the real estate industry. They've incorporated as Kroll Realty Group, enlisting agents to represent them across the suburbs.
What started with Z once using a camcorder to film new listings has transitioned to live social media streams from properties and active social media campaigns. It's stayed a family business, with Z's daughter Victoria now taking on marketing for the new company. Z's stepson Connor is also recently licensed. Kroll's granddaughter McKenzie is also pursuing her license, and 17-year-old Aiden plans to as well, after graduating from high school.
"This is what we do," Z said. "It's what connects us. We're going to take what they built all these years and hope that we can keep it going.
"We're going to do what you taught us," Z said to his father.
The Kroll name might anchor the business, but Z and Jim Kroll want to give agents a chance to grow their own personal brands as well, doing business as KRG Real Estate.
"So that agents have the ability to use the Kroll name as they walk in a door, but they can go by KRG so they can continue to brand themselves," Z said.
But their family's story is woven throughout local real estate—something the siblings have found to create an undeniable advantage.
"They treated people right," Z said. "They taught us how to do that. We've personally trained thousands of agents in our industry that have come through the doors of our family business, and then thousands and thousands of clients that have had their homes represented have been from these agents that all were part of this story, that lived in these communities, either through buying or selling, like I said, or having their home built by the Kroll family."
As the industry has changed with time, the family has aptly rolled with it, largely because their base knowledge was so strong.
"We've embraced technology in our industry," Z said. "We came from our roots, and Dad would have us write at the end of the month the production of the company, how many listings in the office, which agents took listings, which ones made sales. We did it all on yellow legal pads, and we'd have to hand it to him.
"There we are, a 16-, 17-year-old doing these reports. That's how long we've been around. I'll be 55 this year, but I've been working for this company for 40 years."
Their family's story runs generations deep, all traced back to a teen who was told he wouldn't amount to much.
"... You went against the grain," Jim Kroll said to his father with admiration. "People were dodging the war, he volunteered for the war. People were getting out of real estate because the interest rates were high, he got into real estate."
Kroll quietly bats away the praise, saying he simply lived up to his word.
"... if you tell somebody something, don't go backwards because it will take your name away from you," Kroll said. "If you tell somebody you're going to do it, make sure you do what you just told them."
And it comes down to courage.
"When opportunity knocks," Kroll said, "what're you gonna do?"
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