Boyd Keller, 91, K&K Hardware founder dies
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By Jennifer DeWitt | Saturday, December 15, 2007 |
Family, friends and former business partners remembered Boyd Keller, the founder of Bettendorf’s K&K Hardware, as a man devoted to his store, his customers and employees, his family and the community.
Keller died Wednesday at Genesis Medical Center-West Campus, Davenport. He was 91.
More than six decades ago in 1940, Keller opened K&K Electrical because as an electrical contractor, he could not find the parts he needed, his granddaughter, Kortney Gaura, recalled Wednesday. For many years, Keller and his wife, Adeline, ran the store together. She preceded him in death. Today, the store is owned by Gaura’s father, Don Keller.
Gaura said her grandfather semi-retired in 1979, “but he came in to wait on customers and give employees a hard time for years and years. As he grew a little older, his main focus shifted from business to family.”
He is survived by his son, Don, and daughter, Darlene Kennedy, as well as three grandchildren, one stepgrandchild and five great-grandchildren.
“My grandpa was very focused on the store even up until two weeks ago when he went into the hospital,” said Gaura, who now is K&K’s office manager. “One of the nurses came into his room and said ‘I love K&K’ and he opened his eyes and said ‘Cha-ching’ and went back to sleep.”
Former customers and employees reminisced about Keller’s no-nonsense persona and how customer service was always — and remains — job No. 1 at the empire he built.
“He was just an old school kind of guy, who worked 80 hours a week and knew every bolt and coil of rope made,” said Jon Ryan, Bettendorf. “The store was where everybody knew everybody. The mayor would be in buying screws, the police chief would be picking up things and it was the place where everybody met up.”
Ryan said Keller could fix anybody’s repair problem — without actually seeing it. “If you came in and said ‘the handle majiggy on my toilet isn’t working,’ he knew what you meant. He knew everybody in town and knew more about your closet, toilet than anybody and Don is like that too.”
Steve Tometich, the former Bettendorf police chief, said Keller was “one of the really good guys.”
“He did a lot for a lot of people. If people were down on their luck, we’d have them go talk to Keller. Back then, we didn’t have Toys for Tots, so we’d tell them to go over and talk to Boyd, he’ll find something for the kids.” If they needed groceries, they “go to the S&L or someplace and get a list of groceries and take the bill to him.”
Decker Ploehn, who succeeded Tometich as police chief, said K&K has long been a strong community supporter — “and they got that from Boyd.”
“The Kellers have been a staple of our community my entire career, and Boyd was very proud of being a Bettendorf businessman,” said Ploehn, who now is Bettendorf’s city administrator.
K&K began in a building on State Street. The current K&K store was built in 1972.
Jerry Richard, and his mother, Virva Richard, together worked 64 years at K&K, including many years as partners with Keller. “Boyd was very simplistic. If he didn’t see you working when he was out in the store, he assumed you weren’t working when he wasn’t watching you,” Jerry Richard remembered. “If you had spare time, you better figure out what to do in your spare time.”
Virva Richard remembered Keller as a “nice man, a very fair person.”
“He always was good to his people and very considerate of their families. He was a good leader to his group and he worked with them until they learned. You enjoyed working there because you were treated right.”
Jennifer DeWitt can be contacted at (563) 383-2318 or jdewitt@qctimes.com.
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