Richard D. Welch

A Gathering of Family and Friends to Celebrate the Life of Richard D. Welch, age 78 of St. Cloud will be on Thursday, January 26, 2012 from 4:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. at the Daniel Funeral Home in St. Cloud. Richard passed away Saturday evening, January 21, 2012 at the St. Cloud Hospital from complications of Pneumonia. Interment of cremated remains will take place with military honors at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, Minneapolis.
Richard David Welch was born May 7, 1933 to Pearl Knoble and Thomas Welch in Gays Mills, Wisconsin. All conference in Basketball and Baseball at Gays Mills High School, he went on to attend the University of Wisconsin in LaCrosse. Dick interrupted his University career with Military Service from 1953-55, where he was part of decommissioning Korea just after the armistice agreement was signed, and then the Special Service Baseball team at the U.S. Army Schofield Barracks in Oahu, Hawaii. With the benefits from the Veteran’s Adjustment Act of 1952 (GI Bill), he finished a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education and Business in 1958 and began a career in the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) as a Program Director in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Marshalltown, Iowa (1960-61), and then in Pomona, California (1961-1963). Dick was selected to be the Executive Director of the YMCA in Charles City, Iowa in 1963. While Dick was on a Rotary International trip to Mexico City in May of 1968, tornadoes ripped through Charles City, Iowa and destroyed the YMCA building that was both a hotel and recreational facility. He then accepted the challenge of establishing a new YMCA in St. Cloud, Minnesota. In the fall of 1969, Dick started programming in various existing facilities around town and initiated a capital campaign to build the new YMCA facilities that opened in 1976. The YMCA has continued to grow and service the people and families of the greater St. Cloud area since that time. Dick left the YMCA in 1979 for real estate development work until he retired. He is preceded in death by his parents, siblings Dolores, Thomas, Agnes, Edward, Danny and Donny, and nephew Dennis Welch. He is survived by his brother James Welch of Columbus, WI, his children Joan M. Welch (Robert W. Haniwalt) West Chester, PA, James R. Welch (Janet Fuchs Welch) Maple Grove, MN, Teresa E. Wrobbel (Timothy) Buffalo, MN, grandchildren Steven, Erin and Samuel Welch, Jacob and Korinne Wrobbel, and Anson Welch Haniwalt and many nieces and nephews.