BLOOMINGTON — Walking three miles every day, Bloomington resident Richard Kellerhals has rarely missed a beat with his daily routine around downtown.

"When I first started walking, my wife Doris passed away in 1993, and that was the year I retired," said Kellerhals, 93. "I'll tell you, very, very seldom do I ever miss a day, but if I do I just feel terrible."

His route started off with 10 miles and later six, but he continues to make a regular stop at the World War II memorial on the east side of the McLean County Museum of History. Kellerhals and other skilled laborers volunteered 4,000 hours in 1997 to memorialize 336 names of fallen McLean County military members. Among those are his brother, John V. Kellerhals, who died Sept. 4, 1944.  

For 69 years, Kellerhals has been a member of Laborers' International Union of North America Local 362, where he has rehabbed and constructed several structures and volunteered hundreds of hours to the community. 

Having grown up in Weldon during the Great Depression, Kellerhals said he remembers helping his mother preserve food from the family garden and having to sleep in a tent at times as the family struggled to get by. 

When he was 13 years old, Kellerhals and a group of friends were caught stealing and were held in the DeWitt County Jail for six months before being sent to Father Flanagan's Boys Home in Nebraska — now known as Boys Town. He credits his time there for saving his life and for giving him a purpose to help those around him. 

After a year at the Boys Home, Kellerhals was sent back to Central Illinois to work on a farm in Saybrook. Another year after that, in 1946, he returned home and enlisted in the United States Army.  He was stationed in Italy for three years before coming home and joining the Reserves, through which he spent another year in Okinawa on occupational duty. Finally, after coming home a third time, he worked $75 a week as an attendant at the Murphy's gas station on North Main Street in Bloomington.  While working, Kellerhals met a construction worker who would frequently buy fuel. One day, the worker told him they needed another laborer, and asked if Kellerhals would be interested.  "I said OK and started working on construction sites in June of 1953, and I've been a member (of LIUNA) ever since," said Kellerhals, adding that his oldest brother, Gary, was already in the trade. 

Even the fact that Kellerhal's father, Nolan, died in a construction accident in Bloomington in 1947 did not deter him from pursuing that line of work.

"When there was some turmoil in the local union, he's the one man that held his ground and made sure that the union and its officers and members still had control," Penn said. "I've said that openly to a number of people, because my family gets the credit because we ran that local union from 1958 to 2021, but in my opinion, we would not be anywhere close to being this strong without Dick Kellerhals." 

Kellerhals pushed the union to be involved in the community and give back with their labor, including the World War II memorial and projects at the Baby Fold, the Boys and Girls Club, the Children's Foundation, the Bloomington Housing Authority, the Salvation Army and YWCA McLean County, said Ross Manuel, 59, a retired member of Laborers Local 362.

Richard Kellerhals volunteered as "Hopper the Mopper" at the annual Children's Christmas Party for low-income families and children.

COURTESY OF MIKE MATEJKA

"In some ways he's been a father figure because he's been there for so many people, but he's not a stern father figure in the sense you can have fun with him and enjoy yourself," Matejka said. "His upright and moral composure just want you to do the right thing all the time, and it's always a pleasure to be around him." 

Matejka added, "Laborers Local 362 is more than just a union hall. It is a community of caring people who watch out for each other, and Dick Kellerhals is the respected grandfather for those laborers."

Laborers Local 362 Secretary Kim Wheeler, 47, said even after Kellerhals retired, he remained one of their most active members. He served as first president of the union's retiree charter council and continued to attend union meetings, check up on the union hall, see how people were doing — even to drop off some of his signature cookies and muffins. 

"Just to see it through over all those years, and he's still very proud to be a a part of it, and these young guys could learn a lot from him just over his years of experience and knowing how to work in this trade and understanding the ups and downs," Wheeler said. "I think everyone knows him, or if they don't, they will know of him."

As for now, Kellerhals said he will continue to walk his routes under the shade of the downtown Bloomington buildings or at Eastland Mall when it gets too cold outside. He does it in honor of his late wife Doris, and he also hopes to start baking when the weather cools off. 

"There's just so many jobs and things that we did, and so many times the problem was money and we would come in and help," Kellerhals said of his time with the union. "Now it's nice to drive by the places and see one of my jobs there. It just works out real good."

"When they would say thank you, it just meant everything," Kellerhals said of the people the union has helped.