Richard Nicholas Kelly

Richard N. Kelly Richard (Dick) Kelly, beloved husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and friend, passed away on Friday, November 27, 2009. He was born October 21, 1929 in Chicago, IL; to John and Rosa Kelly, the fifth of five children. The family relocated to Colorado the following year and Dick learned to walk on the train to Denver. He grew up in Colorado, mostly in Lyons where the family had a wonderful home along the St Vrain River. The family had cows, chicken, geese and rabbits as well as fruit trees. All of the kids helped with the work. He learned to ride, hunt, swim and to enjoy life. He always had a great passion for the mountains and seeing the world. His mother taught him to take photographs which became a lifelong passion. He graduated from Lyons High School in Colorado where he also played basketball and ran track. He attended one year of college at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He entered the military in 1948 where he found his true calling. He served in South Korea and numerous stateside bases as well as at Ramstein AFB, Germany, Stuttgart Germany, Thailand with Hill AFB, UT as his last duty station. After retiring in 1978 after 30 years, he fulfilled a personal commitment and graduated from Weber State College. He met Barbara Love in Denver, Colorado where they married and started their family. They are proud parents of Sonja (Rowell) and Dr. Stephen Kelly, and even prouder grandparents of Ryan and Aaron Rowell, Christopher, Megan and Matthew Kelly and great-grand parents of Teagen Kelly, daughter of Christopher and Mary Katherine Kelly of Houston, TX. We are thankful to him for teaching all of us to be active as a family we bowled and skied and water skied, took great vacations to the mountains and the beach. When we were stationed in Germany, we were out every weekend, seeing the castles, the scenery and the sights. Of course, along with that was a healthy dose of chores and yard work! We always did that first. Richard fulfilled a distinguished, 30 year military career and we cannot imagine he would have ever done anything else. He loved being the best that he could be and he achieved the rank of Chief Master Sergeant. He received The Air Force Commendation Medal, the Korean Service Medal and the United Nations Service Medal among others. During his military assignments, he always wanted to learn about the area where he was living and the people. He learned as much of the language as he could. To the end, he could still remember words and phrases in Korean and Thai and, he spoke German well. It was his way of making friends and everyone always appreciated his efforts to communicate with them. Of course, his dearest friends here in the state remember him for being a good friend, someone you could really count on, and fun to be with. Up until he became ill, he golfed and skied and went up to the mountain to get wood every year. Even after he became ill, he enjoyed visiting with friends at the base for coffee almost every day, and clam chowder at the club on Fridays! Funeral services will be held Saturday, December 5, 2009 at 11 a.m. at Lindquist’s Layton Mortuary, 1867 No. Fairfield Road. Friends and family may call Saturday from 10 to 10:45 at the mortuary. Interment, Lindquist’s Memorial Park at Layton, 1867 No. Fairfield Road. We want to thank all of Dick’s loyal friends for visiting so often during this last year, it really made his day! Thanks also to the staff of the Rocky Mountain Care facility, especially his daily care givers. You made his time there enjoyable.