From Camrose to the corporate world

Boarding a Soviet train bound for Leningrad on Boxing Day, a young Kerry Preete, CLC ’80, and his fellow Vikings hockey teammates were about to step straight into a Cold War thriller. What was meant to be an eight-hour journey turned into a high-tension border shakedown at -40 degrees, complete with armed guards in heavy coats tearing apart the team’s hockey gear and dismantling floorboards. It was an unforgettable initiation into international hockey that Preete, Augustana’s 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, has retold “hundreds of times.”

It all began with a visit from LeRoy Johnson, the Camrose College Director of Athletics and legendary manager who had built the hockey program at Augustana (then Camrose Lutheran College) and founded the prestigious Viking Cup International Hockey Tournament.

Raised in Melfort, Sask., Preete played junior hockey for the Prince Albert Raiders and Humboldt Broncos after high school as he had no immediate plans for college. That changed when Raiders coach Bob Robson put him in touch with Johnson, who made a personal visit to the family’s farm. Johnson’s vision for the Vikings — including a pitch for the aforementioned European hockey tour — won over both Preete and his parents.

“That was the beginning of my time in Camrose,” says Preete. “If it wasn’t for LeRoy, I wouldn’t have gone. My 96-year-old mother still talks about the day LeRoy came.”

Attending Camrose Lutheran College (CLC) proved to be a turning point for Preete, helping him to adjust back to academic life after his year of junior hockey.

“The small class sizes and the professors, who really took an interest and got to know me personally, helped me get back on track,” he says. “And, of course, the opportunity to play hockey.”

Preete’s memories of campus life are defined by personal interactions and small daily moments like morning walks across the bridge from his classes to the dorms and the “unforgettable” cinnamon buns at the local bakery. However, it was Vikings hockey that provided his most memorable, and occasionally harrowing, experiences.

Under the leadership of late coach Joe Voytechek, the team embarked on a two-week European tour to Finland, Sweden, and the (former) USSR. The trip included an eye-opening three days in Leningrad just as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan began.

“We were at the Helsinki train station, and we boarded this Soviet train with a big hammer and sickle at the front,” he recalls. “I remember looking out the window — the moon was out over the bright white snow. One of the parents took a picture with an old Kodak camera. The guard grabbed the camera, threw it on the floor and smashed it with his foot! It was an incredible experience, and also the first time I had ever been on an airplane or overseas.”

Beyond the thrill of international play, the core values of his time at Augustana left a permanent mark.

“The school instilled discipline, ethics and doing things the right way,” Preete explains, “and Joe carried those fundamental good principles through his hockey program — on and off the ice.”

That solid foundation served Preete well as his athletic and academic journey expanded.

Dave King, future head coach of the Calgary Flames and the Canadian Olympic team, would end up recruiting Preete to the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. Preete played four seasons with the team while completing his commerce degree at the University of Saskatchewan, followed by an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

“I would have never made the team if I hadn’t had that year at Camrose and Joe coaching and playing the style that he played,” he says. “Hockey opened up a lot of doors for me. I got hired by Monsanto because, back then, companies were looking for student-athletes who had learned to balance the demands of getting an education with competing in a sport.”

Preete spent the next 33 years with Monsanto, retiring as executive vice president and chief strategy officer in 2018. In retirement, he remains active in corporate governance, serving on the boards of directors for major organizations like Corteva Agriscience, Univar and Avient. Through it all, he has always kept one foot on the ice, coaching youth hockey (including his own three sons) and supporting minor hockey initiatives in Canada and the United States. In 2021, he even became a minority owner of the Portland Winterhawks, a team he notes was founded in 1950 as the Edmonton Oil Kings and moved to Portland in 1976.

“Much of the discipline you learn playing college sports and being serious about your education are the life lessons and principles that you leverage to be successful in business,” he says. “Everything from how to learn from others, time management and discipline, to thinking about things from different points of view. You have to interact and be part of a team, and you learn what it takes to win, how to set objectives and how to face adversity. All those things are applicable in the business world. I've told LeRoy this, who I have stayed friends with, how that one year at CLC shaped the next 45 years for me.”

Receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award is an honour Kerry describes as “mind-blowing,” but is quick to suggest others are equally deserving. “It’s very special to be thought of like that,” he says. “It has given me another reason to reflect on my time in Camrose — a place I’d describe as both wonderful and intimate. I was just talking to my mom about how welcome my parents always felt on campus and at the rink. They travelled out for a lot of games and, decades later, she still remembers that kindness.”

The Distinguished Alumni Award is presented to an alumnus/a in recognition of outstanding achievement in one’s vocation.