By ANDREW MCGINN
a.mcginn@beeherald.com
RIPPEY — Brick by brick, 77-year-old Keith Devilbiss gave his time freely to erect a memorial to a school that’s now gone but hardly forgotten.
He, too, was a product of the old Rippey School, and even as he neared 80, his pride never faded.
If anything, it made him work harder — Devilbiss wanted to make sure the memorial was done in time for the Rippey Alumni Association’s reunion this past Memorial Day weekend.
Little more than two weeks later, Devilbiss was dead following a two-vehicle crash on a residential street in his hometown.
The Rippey School Memorial that stands, finished, at the site of the former school is now as much a memorial to the man who built it.
“It’s going to be a wonderful, lasting tribute to him,” said Sharon Ulrich, treasurer for the Friends of Rippey organization that co-funded the memorial’s construction using bricks from the razed school.
On the afternoon of June 15, according to the Iowa State Patrol, Devilbiss was westbound on Howard Street in Rippey on a Honda ATV when he met a southbound Ford F-150 driven by Nicholas Rice, 18, on 2nd Street.
Devilbiss reportedly failed to yield at the uncontrolled intersection and struck the front of Rice’s truck.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Family and friends laid the retired mason to rest Tuesday in the Rippey Cemetery.
In a place like Rippey, where someone like Ulrich can be a 37-year resident and yet still be the “newcomer,” the fatal crash hit residents like a ton of bricks.
“Such a generous man,” Ulrich said.
Employees at the Sparky’s gas station had a sympathy card out the next day on the front counter for anyone who wanted to sign it.
A blue pinwheel placed in front of the Rippey School Memorial bore a note that read, “For Keith, his memory lives on.”
“It’s just terrible,” Ulrich said. “But what a wonderful memorial he left.”
Mary Weaver, president of the Friends of Rippey and an alumna of the Rippey School, described Devilbiss as a man who loved his hometown who would do anything for anybody.
When talk began about how to memorialize the school — built in 1920 and demolished in 2014 — Devilbiss presented three concept drawings.
“He was the brainchild,” Weaver said.
But even more than that, “He was the person that finally put it together,” Weaver added.
Devilbiss donated his labor to construct the memorial, and even ran a hose from his nearby house to the site for the cement work, she said.
“This was a labor of love for him,” Weaver said.
The project brought Devilbiss’ life full circle.
As a young mason, he helped build the school’s gymnasium in 1957.
“He has had his hand in the school the whole time,” Weaver said.
The gym was left for community use.
When razing the school itself, crews were able to skillfully remove the entire Rippey Consolidated School sign intact. Initially, Weaver said, it was thought the 18-foot-long piece of stonework might be too unwieldy to use in the memorial. Organizers assumed they’d have to break it down, salvaging only the part that read “Rippey.”
Devilbiss assured them he could make the whole sign work, Weaver said.
It’s now the centerpiece of the memorial.
While the memorial is complete, personalized bricks to adorn a patio at the site are still available for purchase by anyone connected to the old school.
An order form can be found on the Remembering the Rippey School Facebook page.
The very first brick on the patio fittingly reads, “Keith Devilbiss, volunteer mason of Rippey Memorial.”
“He got it done just in the nick of time,” Weaver said.
