Press

Helping others big part of his life

By ERIC PARRY, Saturday, Jul. 1, 2006
Nashua Telegraph

Jul. 1, 2006, HUDSON - When Ralph Kelley went to the Davis Funeral Home to make arrangements for his uncle's funeral, he learned that Ralph Kelley had made arrangements back in 1962 to have his body donated to science. "He had been planning to help people when he was gone long before he died," said Ralph. Friends and family remember Kelley as a man who has helped hundreds of people over his 85 years, including saving the lives of two sisters when he jumped out of a burning shoe factory back in 1938, leaving him a quadriplegic and unable to move from the chest down.

Kelley was the recipient of a bronze medal from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission for the rescue of two sisters. Kelley died last Saturday at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center after recurrent illnesses. Throughout his life, Kelley never allowed his medical problems to get in the way of helping others around him. Ralph Kelley remembers when his uncle ran a switchboard company, Kelley's Answering Service, answering phones for The Salvation Army. Homeless people would call looking for a place to stay and Kelley would invite them to stay in a spare bedroom at his house when The Salvation Army was full, his nephew said. "It's incredible to think of what he accomplished and the lives that he touched," said Ralph Kelley. "Imagine what he could have accomplished if he wasn't in a wheelchair." Kelley ran his switchboard company in Hudson for 50 years.

Ellen Curelop, a friend of Kelley's who also managed his health care for the last five years of his life, said Kelley would often repeat a motto that he lived by, "when faced with adversity you have to work it out to your advantage," he would say. Curelop says she will remember Kelley as having a rare physical and spiritual strength. Curelop also remarked on Kelley's love for classical music and his ability to identify almost any composition. Kelley passed on his love of music to his grandniece, Elizabeth. She took piano lessons throughout her life and is now an accomplished pianist and musician. She credits Kelley with getting her involved with the piano.

Jean Serino, a friend of Kelley's for 30 years, remembers the first day that she met Kelley. Serino was taking classes at Rivier College about 30 years ago and was a horrible typist. Serino hired Kelley, who was working as a public stenographer at the time, to type her papers for her. She knew then she had found a good friend when she received an A on the first paper that Kelley typed for her. "When you meet someone like that, if you have half a brain, you understand that you should cherish and honor him," said Serino. "We talked about everything, from Jane Eyre to politics." Serino also remembers the last time he typed for her. Two years ago, Serino was writing a college recommendation for a friend, Tom O'Dowd, to attend the University of New Hampshire. Serino sat next to Kelley as he typed the two-page letter for three hours. Kelley knew O'Dowd's mother, Rita, when she worked for him at Kelley's Answering Service, and insisted on typing the letter even though he had trouble seeing. "It was painful for him to do that," said Serino. "But it was typical for him to extend himself to someone like that."

Even though Serino says she would talk with or visit Kelley at his home at least once a week, she wishes that she could have spent more time with him because he meant so much to her over the years. "There's a big whole in my life now without Ralph," Serino said. Kelley's wife, Lourdes, and her family still live in his house in Hudson. Lourdes' family, who is from the Philippines, emigrated to the United States in May and never got to spend much time with Kelley because he was ill much of the last few months. "The memory of Ralph will live on through his family," said Ralph Kelley. "He opened his heart and his home to them."