Dick Kroese
Christianne Dettmann
“Cruise with Kroese and make a difference!”
If you grew up in the 1950s and 1960s anywhere near Hebron or Humboldt, Neb., you’re probably no stranger to this Ford dealership slogan. In fact, your folks might very well have had the family car cleaned by SaddleBrooke’s very own Dick Kroese (pronounced “cruise”).
Dick is a founding member of the SaddleBrooke Sunrise Rotary Club, one of two Rotary Clubs in Greater SaddleBrooke. He originally served with the Rotary Club of SaddleBrooke after retiring in 2008, but in 2014 he broke off with several others to form this new club more expressly focused on hands-on service projects.
You could say Dick has been in service and transportation for most of his life. Growing up, his father owned two Ford car dealerships that encouraged customers to “Cruise with Kroese ….” And cruise he did! Dick earned a Bachelor of Religious Studies degree at Nebraska Wesleyan University. During his sophomore year, he spent one semester at Lane College, a historically black university in Jackson, Tenn., through an exchange program developed by the two college presidents, both of whom had gone to school together themselves. Dick remains in touch with good friends he made there.
Dick left college with plans to become a minister, but the draft took him instead to the Navy where he served on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam. Sadly, Dick saw much Agent Orange being used while there and lost his best friend to excessive exposure. After he returned, Dick earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Dick started his post-Navy working life as a correctional officer at a penitentiary in Nebraska, but he soon found that didn’t suit him. He then became a tax collector, but finding that didn’t suit him either, he took a friend’s suggestion and joined Union Pacific (UP) where he fell in love with railroad life. Dick and his wife Judy went on with his railroad roles to live all over the U.S., including California, Alabama, Georgia, and Arizona. He left UP briefly to work for CSX, but eventually came back as a personnel manager in charge of all UP engineers and conductors, a job he loved!
Speaking of love, Dick and Judy had a whirlwind romance, marrying only a few months after they met in Omaha while he was in college. They have lived in SaddleBrooke for well over 20 years and are now only one year shy of celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary!
One of the first projects Dick and the new Rotary Club started in 2014 was to help with Moonlight Madness sales at the Golden Goose. He also has written several grants that benefit Sister José Women’s Center, and in his spare time, he makes walking sticks from yucca stock. You can even purchase one at Desert Life Pharmacy on SaddleBrooke Boulevard. All proceeds go to the Tri-Community Food Bank, further evidence that his dad’s slogan stuck, because Dick Kroese clearly knows how to make a difference.