Submitted by: Dan Rich
Roland Kelly
South Bend Tribune 5/28/2007
SOUTH BEND - Roland Kelly, 80, died Saturday at St. Joseph
Regional Medical Center surrounded by his family. He did not have
a stroke (the Tribune regrets the error). He suffered from a
group A strep infection - the same thing, Roland would hasten to
add, that killed George Gipp. Had he recovered, you can be sure
he would have turned his story of beating what the Gipper did not
into a favorite on the banquet circuit. His favorite, anyway.
With Roland gone, there will be empty seats all over town. * In
the South Bend Common Council chambers, where he served the city
for the last 16 years. * At the University Club, where he and his
friends around the Algonquin Table turned lunch into a BS buffet.
* On a golf cart tooling around the old Burke course at Notre
Dame, where he searched for wayward shots as a member of the PGA
(Pathetic Golfers Association). * In the locker room at the YMCA,
where the wise-cracking camaraderie kept him coming back for more
laps in the pool. * Along the long table at Cosimo & Susie's,
where his friends and family gathered to celebrate or commiserate
after Notre Dame football games. * And at home in front of the
television, where he dozed through Cubs games, sipped red wine he
bought in big jugs (quantity over quality, every time), and
delighted in his grandchildren.
His three children, seven grandchildren and great-grandson miss him deeply, but Roland's absence will be felt far beyond his home and family. Roland and his wife, Joyce, who died in 2003 after 54 years of marriage, seemed to know everybody. Though he was born and raised in Port Chester, N.Y., Roland established deep roots in South Bend as a broadcaster, a performer and a volunteer. He was inducted into the South Bend Community Hall of Fame in 2001. A ham at heart, he performed with Presbyterian Players and the South Bend Press Club, led the Roland Kelly Singers, and never turned down an invitation to speak. Roland graduated from Notre Dame in 1950 - here he would hasten to add that the football team never lost a game in his four years - and worked as an anchor and news director at WSBT from 1954-72. He returned to the station as news director for two years in the mid-1980s, but otherwise worked for St. Joseph-slash-Trustcorp-slash-Society-slash-Key Bank from 1972 until his retirement. In Roland's case "retirement" was a relative term. Already a two-term Common Council member before he retired from the bank, he made city government and myriad other civic activities his full-time occupation for the last decade of his life. A local committee without him as a member might technically be illegal (somebody should look that up). All those public activities were only part of his commitment to the community. Through a local mentoring program, he spent the last 10 years forging a friendship with Thomas, whose accomplishments filled Roland with as much pride as if he were his own grandson. Tempting as it is to say that he left big shoes to fill, let's face it, Roland did not have big shoes. A board on the wall of his hospital room, where he spent the last month fighting the infection, listed all his vital information. One day it read, "Height: 5-4," which might have been accurate around 1988. Good thing he didn't wake up to see that or he might have died from the shock. It would have been inappropriate to send Roland off without one last short joke. Those little jibes implied something significant about him. He could laugh at himself, first of all, and if his (lack of) height was all anybody had on him, he must have been doing something right.
Roland is survived by his daughter, Laurie (Rick) Dow; sons, Randy (Jory) and Jason (Kara) Kelly; seven grandchildren, Rick, Katie and Pat Dow, and Breanna, Maeve, Jayne and Eavan Kelly; and one great-grandson, Max Dow.
Visitation will be at the McGann Funeral Home University Area Chapel, 2313 E. Edison Road, from 3 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Funeral services will be held at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the Notre Dame campus. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Boys and Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County.