ADRIAN ­— For Joel Scholz, it all comes back to kites. 

The retired kite designer and Adrian transplant owes much of who he is today to a spring day decades ago in his hometown of Austin, Texas. A bored college student studying to become a teacher after changing majors from chemistry and biology, Joel stumbled upon a kite festival in Zilker Park. He had always been fascinated by things that flew, kites included, so when he found himself with some time on his hands, he decided to build a kite and enter the festival’s contest. 

He won third place. The rest is, as they say, history. 

“In the course of doing that, I met some people that were adults doing kites,” he said. “They made me feel it was OK for a grown-up man to fly kites.” 

Fly kites he did. 

Joel returned to the Zilker Park kite festival year after year, building kites for the competition and meeting other people making kites. He became an art teacher and, after a few years of doing that, got burnt out on it, going back to school to become an X-ray technician, and all the while, he was building and flying kites. 

Everything came together when, in the ’80s, he was facing layoffs from his job as an X-ray technician and had designed his F16 stunt kite, a maneuverable dual-lined kite that he could see the potential in. 

“I thought ‘you know, I bet you I could make a lot of money with this kite,’ ” he said. 

He decided to take a risk with the F16, borrowing $10,000 and starting his own business — Sky Delight Kites. It was the start of a decades-long, successful career in kite design, one that took him all over the world as he won competitions and partnered with toy and kite companies to chase his passion by designing kites. 

His career even brought him to his wife, Bonnie Palmer. 

Joel entered the competition at the Black Ships Kite Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, the grand prize of which was a trip to Japan. His kite won and it was featured on a magazine cover, one that she came across before she had even met him. 

Bonnie’s interest in kites led her to making them herself, just a few small towns away from where Joel was living at the time. So when Joel placed an ad in the local paper seeking a seamstress to sew the kites he’d made the frames and patterns for, she knew she had to go for it. 

Or she did eventually, anyway. Bonnie was hesitant to reach out and, when she did, Joel had already hired a few seamstresses to do the work. That would have been the end of it, had fate not intervened. When one of those seamstresses wasn’t able to complete the work, she ran into Bonnie and offered the job to her. She eagerly accepted and their work partnership began, followed eventually by their romantic one. The pair worked together on Sky Delight Kites projects for years, creating dozens of different designs that were sometimes even sold to be produced by other companies. 

While Joel picked the perfect time in the industry to start his business, kiting as a hobby faded before too long. When he founded Sky Delight Kites, his enterprise was just one of 300 kite producers in the United States. In the decades since, that number has dwindled, with Joel and Bonnie both retiring from the industry 14 years ago. 

But kiting was never just a job for Joel, it was a passion. When the couple moved to Adrian in 2024, they found a home that was ideal for their creative pursuits. Bonnie’s workshop is in the basement, where she’s delved into her love of dollhouses — “Being married to a creative man, I always want that creativity to rub off on me,” she said — and Joel’s is in a barn out back. 

There, he has everything he needs to design and build whatever kites he can possibly imagine. There are rolls of nylon fabric, an array of tools, even sewing machines to stitch everything together. His love of flying kites drives his design, from making things inspired by nature — something else he loves — to the practical side of design itself. With no formal training in physics, he’s had to learn through practice and observation what makes a good kite. 

“I’ve been fascinated by things that flew all my life,” he said. “When I was a kid I would spend hours and days making paper airplanes. My sister and I would go out and fly a diamond kite. It’s kind of intuitive for me. I can see something like a kite and if it’s not doing something correctly, I have a sense for what’s causing it to not work and I can change it up so it does work.” 

Another perk of the location of the Adrian home? It’s close to Mitchell and Cal Zorn parks, both near ideal places to fly a kite. That’s where you can often find Joel, taking one of his creations to the sky when the conditions are right. 

Though, to his disappointment, he’s always the only one at the park flying a kite. 

“Kiting can be an inexpensive sport and it gets kids outdoors and away from phones or computer screens,” he said. “It gets them into nature and exposes them to good things.” 

When he does see children at the park, they’re often there to play a more traditional sport like soccer or baseball. Joel sees the value in those activities, but also sees the opportunity that kiting has to offer people who may not take to other athletic pursuits. 

“There are a lot of kids who aren’t cut out to play sports like that,” he said. “There are a lot of people who got into it for the sport of it, who are flying dual-line kites and compete. It’s a great way to meet people, it’s a good way to get out into nature and it’s good exercise.”

Joel hopes that he can spark a love of kiting in the region. Whether it be from someone seeing one of his creations in the sky and deciding to pursue it on their own or starting a regularly scheduled gathering that can grow with time, he wants to share the sport that first gave him a hobby, then a career and, eventually, even his spouse.

“The Chinese said that when you’re flying a kite you’re actually closer to God,” he said. 

“That’s true in the sense that when you’re out in nature, flying a kite, your cares seem to disappear. It’s a good, wholesome, family thing to do.” 

If you’re interested in learning about kiting, you can contact Joel at [email protected].