Craig Metzler

Charles “Craig” Metzler was born on July 4, 1948 to Charlie and Kay Metzler in Lansing, Michigan. Along with his older brother Jim and younger sister Candy the family moved to Gladstone, Missouri where he had fond memories of riding bikes, playing baseball, and getting into a bit of mischief here and there.

In 1966 he was part of the first graduating class at Oak Park High School. He then enlisted in the US Navy where he was on the USS Flying Fish submarine. He was honorably discharged six years later. Never one to squander lessons and knowledge learned, he used the training from his time in the Navy in order to pursue a career.

In 1976 he married the love of his life, Sherry Kroenke. Together they had four children: Autumn (husband Chris Nieland), Brookes (husband Louis Barrack), Christopher (wife Lauren Metzler), and Kally (husband Joe Germano).

In 1978 he started Progressive Electronics Inc in his home basement and through hard work, ingenuity, and foresight grew it to a multi-generational business that has completed thousands of projects in at least 7 different states. These projects included sound systems at Arrowhead, The K, Sporting KC, and The Church of the Resurrection. He loved his work and valued his time with his clients and his employees.

He was a devoted husband and father, loving nothing more than to spend time with them. As his children aged he loved to coach their many sports and spent many evenings alternating between his own work and helping them with homework. He cooked many meals and taught them valuable life lessons such as pouring concrete and building decks. Craig was an avid snow skier and handed the love of the mountains and skiing down to his children. He was also an amazing water skier; he taught all of his kids to ski and enjoyed many summers at the Ozarks surrounded by his family, his brothers and sisters-in-law, and many nieces and nephews.

As he got older he “semi-retired” to a 4-day work week and started to enjoy playing golf. Not one to do anything halfway, he got proficient enough at it that he even got a hole in one! He loved to travel all over the world with his wife and when the opportunity allowed with his grown children. He was the proud grandfather of 11 grandchildren; Wes and Carter Nieland, Ellis, Everett, and Teddy Barrack, Charlie and Olivia Metzler, Declan, Callen, Rowan, and Maya Germano. He loved to play ball with them, hike with them, swim and fish with them, play poker with them, run around with them, and love on them. They all adored him.

In August of 2020 he was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. For 54 long days he was inpatient at KU Medical Center receiving treatment with Sherry by his side the whole time. He hopped on a Zoom every single night with his kids and grandkids and his positive attitude during very rigorous treatment blew them away and consoled them. His amazing team of doctors and nurses were able to get him into remission and his son, Christopher, lovingly donated his bone marrow for a bone marrow transplant. He fought hard against this vicious disease and rarely complained. For two and a half years he spent many days at the KU Cancer Center getting checkups and again, he rarely, if ever, complained. Instead, he bought himself a new blue Corvette and spent as much time as possible enjoying life with his wife and spending time with his children and grandchildren. In December of 2022 he found out the AML was back. He again went into the fight with a positive attitude until the very end. Even when most of his strength was gone he loved nothing more than to have his children and grandchildren over to enjoy time with him and Sherry.

On Sunday, March 26th, with his wife and children by his side, he died peacefully at home. He was loved beyond measure because he loved beyond measure. He will be deeply and dearly missed.