Harry Kalsch

A longtime resident of Houston, Texas, Harry Kalsch was a first-team responder and community volunteer during the Hurricane Ike disaster in 2008. Certified and trained through the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program, Mr. Kalsch participated as a member of the Harris County Citizen Corps. The large-scale dislocation and evacuation caused by Hurricane Ike resulted in the largest search-and-rescue operation in American history, with volunteer groups helping significantly in the undertaking. Harry Kalsch encourages his fellow citizens to be prepared for future disasters, and supports preparedness training by participating in the annual Harris County Hurricane Workshop.

Mr. Kalsch has a strong connection to his community and enjoys volunteering for a variety of social causes. Joining others at the Houston Food Bank, he helped to process food donations, working on a conveyor belt line. An active outdoorsman, Mr. Kalsch also participated in the cleanup and re-landscaping of the Timbergrove Manor neighborhood and volunteered to pick up trash as part of the Trash Bash event to remove litter from Little Thicket Bayou.

An entrepreneur, Harry Kalsch works in both the high-tech software industry and in real estate investment. Mr. Kalsch is the owner of nohup corp, an IT consultation company he founded after a successful career at IBM. An expert in IBM’s AIX operating system and UNIX platforms, Mr. Kalsch has installed more than 50 new clusters, and offers troubleshooting and performance tuning on existing systems.

In addition to his work as a computer consultant, Harry Kalsch owns Key Realty of Houston. The privately held company specializes in real estate analysis and in marketing investment properties inside the Interstate 610 loop. One of the first real estate projects undertaken by Mr. Kalsch was the restoration of the Love Court Apartments in Houston Heights. The units remain under his management, where they have served to transform the neighborhood into a more desirable community.