James Richard “Dick” Kelble

1920s

Born 8 March 1922 in the Grandview area of Columbus, Ohio; christened at Holy Name Church. Through his early childhood the family made frequent trips south to Xenia to visit his Kelble grandparents. In July 1927 they moved to the Philadelphia area.

1930s

Grew up in Glenside, north of Philadelphia, and attended Catholic schools, reaching his senior year at Northeast Catholic High School for Boys.

1940s

Graduated in June 1942 and went to work for his father at the Huffman-Wolfe Co. He enlisted that November and served as a medium-tank crewman and driver with Company A, 42nd Tank Battalion, through the Rhineland, Ardennes and Central Europe campaigns, reaching Technician 4th Grade. Discharged in December 1945, he reached home at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia, on the 22nd.

1950s

Married Mary Dolores Bedesem and settled in Glenside — first at the Keswick Apartments, and from 1955 at 2183 Charles Street, where the family stayed for over thirty years.

later

Moved eventually to Audubon, Pennsylvania, where he died on 8 January (the record does not give the year).

Columbus to Philadelphia

James Richard “Dick” Kelble was born on March 8, 1922, in the Grandview section of Columbus, Ohio, and christened at Holy Name Church. For the first five years of his life the family made regular pilgrimages south to Xenia to see his grandparents — visits at Easter, Labor Day, and Christmas that recur again and again in the records, often bringing along his uncle John Kelble's family as well. In July 1927 the family left Columbus for good, stopping in Xenia for a final week-long visit with his grandparents before settling in the Philadelphia area, where Dick would spend the rest of his life. He attended Saint Luke's School and graduated from Northeast Catholic High School for Boys in June 1942, having played on its sectional sports teams.

War in Europe

Dick registered for the draft in June 1942 and was inducted into the Army that November, training with the 42nd Armored Regiment of the 11th Armored Division at Camp Polk, Louisiana. He shipped out from New York to Liverpool in late September 1944 and landed in Cherbourg, France, entering combat for the first time on December 30, 1944, when his tank struck a minefield that blew off a track and damaged three wheels. Less than two weeks later, on January 12, 1945, he was wounded in action some three thousand yards from Longchamp, Belgium — artillery fragments tore into his shoulder — and spent nearly two months recovering in an army hospital before returning to active duty on March 6. He was promoted from Private to Technician 4th Grade in April 1945 and served out the war as a medium-tank crewman with Company A of the 42nd Tank Battalion, driving through the Rhineland, Ardennes, and Central Europe campaigns. For his wound he received the Purple Heart, along with the World War II Victory Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three bronze service stars. He shipped home in December 1945, arriving at Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia and mustering out at Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, on December 30, 1945, with a final paycheck of $192.64.

Trades, Family, and a House of His Own

After the war Dick trained briefly as a plumber's apprentice and went to work for his father Frank at the Huffman-Wolfe Company in Philadelphia, later working construction plumbing on and off for the rest of his career — including a shortage of work in 1962 and a labor picket in Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1972. The family's most fully documented project is the house Dick and his wife built in Glenside in 1953: a prefabricated “Golden Key” home they planned down to the inch, building a 1:48 scale model of the living room out of balsa wood to test furniture layouts, debating plaster versus drywall (Dick's father, who thought drywall wouldn't last with children in the house, pushed hard for plaster), and negotiating with contractors over everything from ceramic bathroom tile to which side of the house should face the sun. The family settled into that home on Charles Street in Glenside, where they would live for over thirty years, and Dick was still working as a construction plumber as late as 1991.

In his later years Dick and his family kept up a warm pattern of travel and visits with his children and grandchildren, including regular trips to see family in Vermont. He died on January 8, 2012, at The Meadows at Shannondell in Audubon, Pennsylvania.