R.C. Durr, The Man and The Legacy: New book celebrates founder of R.C. Durr Foundation

By Judy Clabes
NKyTribune editor

Trustees of the R.C. Durr Foundation wanted an historical record of the life of its founder and that’s how the book, R.C. Durr, The Man and The Legacy, came to be.

I was happy, as a long-time friend of R.C.’s and one who had written about him in his lifetime, to undertake the project. Frankly, I had wanted to write his story during his lifetime, but — in his characteristic modesty — he would reply: “Write about that preacher down the street, he’s the one who does work that deserves a book.”

My family met R.C. and Katherine Durr in the early 1980s when I became editor of The Kentucky Post and with my late husband, Gene, and our two young boys we settled into a farm on Richwood Road. Back then, that was “the sticks” but we had horses and we were bringing them all so we needed the acreage and the barns. Lucky for us, R.C. and Katherine were neighbors, then living on a farm they called “Richland Farm,” 350-acres where R.C. was developing his interests in thoroughbred racing. He was just getting started, later buying Richwood Manor and accumulating thousands of acres in Sparta.

The Durrs were the best neighbors, welcoming a young family to Northern Kentucky, and making us feel right at home. They became an integral part of our lives and friendship blossomed.

By then, R.C. was already an extremely successful — and prolific — road builder and construction company owner, setting all kinds of records and having a stellar reputation for quality and dependability. “My word IS a contract,” he would say. The son of Carrie Stevens Durr and Steve Durr, he was born in the small Kenton County farming community of Atwood in 1919. His older brother, William “Bill,” and their parents lived a hardscrabble life on the farm, but the brothers learned the value of hard work and persistence. Bill and R.C. were brothers and the closest friends throughout their lives.

When his aunt gave R.C. $500 to go to college right after graduation with the last class at the old Independence High School, R.C. bought a truck instead — and went to work hauling stone. From this modest beginning — and with work on his mind — he built his business enterprises. His interests over the years expanded to highway construction, banking, extensive land ownership, smart investments and more.

But his focus was on the work, and on honor and quality and reputation — and caring for his fellow man.

The book tells the story of that incredible life and of the incredible man who lived it.

In the book are also profiles of three special men who mattered to R.C. in a big way —

• Wilbert Ziegler, the attorney and friend, who convinced him to start his Foundation, who became the executor of his estate, and who heads the Foundation, one of the largest in Kentucky, that continues the lifetime of generosity R.C. practiced;

• Richard Crist, the engineer, who became a key player in his construction business and who spent 40 years shoulder-to-shoulder with R.C. every day, developing the business into one of the top construction companies in the state; and

• Robert Zapp, the banker, who first met R.C. as a teenager working on a road crew in Sparta; they reconnected in the banking world and Zapp became president of The Bank of Kentucky, growing the bank into the top community bank in NKY, until its sale after R.C.’s death.

These men, entrusted friends of R.C.’s, were invaluable resources for the book. Their records and the Foundation’s and my own extensive files — plus past and present interviews with others who knew him, many of them now deceased, filled in the gaps in the historical records.

The book is uplifting, an inspiration for how to live a full life based on “caring about my fellow man.” He said he never counted his money, and those who knew him believe that. He was always ready to write his own check to help those who needed a helping hand.

The book 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 should contact judy@nkytrib.com.