By Judy Clabes
NKyTribune editor
The release of the book, R.C. Durr, The Man and The Legacy, invigorated memories of the late businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. His inspiring life story is told in full — from his modest growing up in Atwood through his dedication to work as a successful road contractor, innovative banker, landholder, investor, and philanthropist who left a great gift, the R.C. Durr Foundation, to the region he loved.
One particular story in the book, told in short here, captures the essence of R.C.’s true character. It’s the story of his friendship with a young boy whose father worked on the massive farm in Sparta. The boy’s father works there today, though the farm has long since been sold.
The boy, Malachi Chavez, was no more than five years old when he first met the man who wore bib overalls, seasoned boots, and a vented cap on a visit to the farm, talking with the workers who were gathering up the hundreds of acres of tobacco planted there.
Malachi knew the man, who seemed every bit the ordinary farmer, was someone important though he didn’t look or act that way. He met the workers, who were saturated with the results of a hard day’s work, and showed no reluctance as he shook their hands and expressed his gratitude. The sticky resin was no barrier to his respect for the Mexican laborers.
The man approached the boy who played with a small tractor in the hole of a wagon wheel while he enjoyed a few Oreo cookies that remained of his day’s lunch. The boy was drawn to the kindness he saw in the man’s eyes and offered him his last Oreo cookie.
Without hesitation, “Mr. Durr,” as Malachi had heard him called, accepted the cookie from the boy’s tobacco-tarred hands, thanked him, and ate the cookie.
He then invited the boy to take a walk with him, and a friendship flourished. They walked, as Malachi tells it, not as an adult and a child, but as “fellow farmers” who shared a love of the land. Over time, those walks continued and the friendship deepened.
Malachi credits “Mr. Durr” with instilling in him a “profound sense of deep pride” for the land he still calls home. He remembers that “Mr. Durr” told him that, though he owned the lands, those who toiled its soil and whose sweat was in the fields “truly possessed the right to call it home.”
Some three years later, after many such walks and meaningful conversations, Malachi and “Mr. Durr” meandered along the path to a neighbor’s garage. The neighbor was moving and invited them to come by. The neighbor emerged from his garage with a small blue pedal tractor cast from steel with hard, plastic wheels and white FORD letters on it.
Now, Malachi was a “John Deere boy” but he couldn’t resist the invitation to take that Ford tractor for a long spin down the blacktop road. He peddled and peddled until he came to the end of the road and started back with a heavy heart, thinking he’d never see that tractor again.
“Mr. Durr” had other ideas.
He turned to Malachi and said words the boy still hears: “That’s your tractor now. It’s not a John Deere but it will last as long as mine if you take care of it.”
Malachi has that tractor still today — in the living room of his home in the Sparta countryside — as a reminder of the love and respect he shared with the man with kind eyes whose big heart had room for a little boy.
“Mr. Durr did so many things for my family and me,” he says today. “His deeds of charity and love could fill pages. Every winter a new thick coat would be delivered for my brother and me . . . and my parents always had a nice place to live.”
The book, R.C. Durr, The Man and The Legacy, published for the R.C. Durr Foundation, is now available at all Roebling Books locations, at St. Elizabeth Healthcare gift shops, and online here. Distributions are being made to public libraries and select nonprofits. Schools and nonprofits interested in the book for their libraries or gift shops should contact judy@nkytrib.com.