KALONA

Just try to keep up with Ken Wehr. On the afternoon we caught up with him, he had already worked out at the YMCA, socialized over coffee, and enjoyed an ice cream soda at Yotty’s; following our interview, he had plans in Riverside for the afternoon and an event to attend in Cedar Rapids that night.

The man does not rest.

“I don’t want to sit down and while time away,” he says. “I’ve worked all my life. It took me a couple years to figure out how to retire, and now I’m enjoying that.”

Wehr, 86, retired five years ago from a career in the trucking industry. For almost 30 years, he drove semis over the road, traveling through all but four of the lower 48 states; prior to that, he worked for B D Duwa running the wool business.

“I moved here in 1960 and that’s who I got a job with. I was there right at 30 years when the market fell out,” he says of his career in wool. “The board of trustees said, just close the doors and take one lump sum. The next day, I was in a semi hauling grain.”

Although his work in the wool trade met a premature end, his interest continues. Every Wednesday, he heads over to the Kalona Sales Barn to have lunch – “That’s the best place in town to eat,” he says – and while there, he keeps an eye on the sheep and goat sales.

“Things have changed in the last 30 years,” he notes. “Sheep aren’t the same as what they were when I was buying wool.”

Rather than seeing himself as a master of two trades, Wehr describes himself as “a jack of all trades and master of none,” and with good reason: as a young man, he helped his dad with all sorts of odd jobs and has a huge range of experience. For him, “manual labor” was exactly that.

“I tell my grandkids that back in those days we did everything manually,” he says. He then describes digging ditches with a spade rather than a backhoe; unloading 17 carloads of coal by hand; mixing and delivering feed with out the aid of an auger; and mixing cement for highway paving without a ready-mix truck.

All this experience has led him to this point in his life, where he is happy to use his skills to help others.

“I’ve worked most of my life,” he says. “I’m enjoying doing what I want to, and when somebody is in need, I don’t mind helping them out.”

For example, when a friend moved to town and needed help with lawn maintenance, Wehr knew exactly what to do.

“I volunteered and I brought my mower over and mowed it,” he says. When she bought new furniture at Slumberland in Coralville, “I took my trailer and went up there and got it, and helped her get it moved in.”

Wehr is also a tireless community volunteer.

“On behalf of the Chamber, he has volunteered with Christmas in Kalona, Iowa State Fair, and the Kalona Home Show,” Kalona Chamber Director Tonia Poole says. “He also volunteers at Kalona Days on behalf of the Optimist Club, among many other things.”

The Chamber works with many volunteers throughout the year to make life in Kalona something special. But with jobs and families occupying a lot of their time, they aren’t always able to fill every need. This is where retired volunteers like Wehr are a valued asset.

To recognize his unflagging commitment to service, Wehr was chosen as this year’s Kalona Days parade marshal, an experience he had never imagined for himself.

“It was fun, and I got to see the people [lining the streets] before they got all excited about the candy,” he says about riding in the lead vehicle. At the end, “I just wheeled around and got under a shade tree and watched the parade finish up, so I got to see the parade [too].”

Interestingly, when Wehr attended his 69th class reunion recently, he learned a classmate was grand marshal this year in the Sigourney parade. “So, two of us out of that class of 1955 were grand marshals this year,” he says.

Family is also important to Wehr. Married to wife Shirley for 48 years until her passing in 2005, he has four children, 10 grandchildren (counting spouses), 13 great-grandchildren, and his first great-great-grandchild is expected in January.

Wehr has found that he’s able to weave together his volunteer hours with family time. For example, the Kalona Optimist Club serves food and drinks from the concession stand between the youth ball fields at Kalona City Park. “I helped out down at the concession stand during the summer, and in between working down there, I was going to my great grandson’s ballgames,” he says.

After five years, Wehr seems to have mastered retirement. For him, not going to work every day required some adjustment, but he knew he wanted to stay busy. He turned to the YMCA and Senior Fitness classes for exercise; friends for social time; the Optimist Club and Kalona Chamber for service opportunities; and family for get-togethers and kids’ sporting events. He’s also genius at finding where the action is on any given day, and he enjoys driving to surrounding communities to be a part of it.

He relishes his freedom.

“It’s my doing now, not somebody else told me I have to,” he says. “That’s what I’m enjoying about it.”