John Kelley died May 20 in the hospice where he had been a volunteer for seven years. He was 58.
He was so dedicated that he did work from home in the last weeks of his life before being admitted to Denver Hospice in late April.
Services will be at 10 a.m. today at Queen of Peace Catholic Church, 13120 E. Kentucky Ave., Aurora.
Among other duties, Kelley was a stalwart in the semi-annual Mask Project, the chief fundraising event for Denver Hospice.
The ceramic masks are painted by entertainers, artists and celebrities, signed by them, put on display and then auctioned off.
“John would pick up masks, take them to the Cherry Creek Shopping Center for display and help at the gala,” said Helen Quelch, manager of volunteers at Denver Hospice (formerly the Hospice of Metro Denver).
Kelley said he wanted to volunteer at the hospice shortly after his partner, Michael Rikard, died there in 1999, but he preferred office work rather than direct care, said Quelch.
“He was a take-charge kind of person, but at the same time had a gentle personality,” Quelch said. “He had a lot of energy and commitment.”
Kelley worked for years for the Colorado Department of Human Services, where he was senior executive manager.
“John always made sure we operated within the law and wanted us to do the right thing,” said Bill Hanna, who was the legislative liaison for human services when Kelley worked there.
“He was never flustered; he was smart and even-handed, had no ego and had a very, very broad knowledge of the system,” Hanna said.
But, he added, “John had the most God-awful coffee cup. I think it was last washed in 1932. It had a skull on it. It was so ugly. But he loved that cup.”
“His whole life was doing good things for other people,” said his brother Tom Kelley of Denver.
But he could hang on “like a rat dog” when he was lobbying to get more money for human services,” said his sister-in-law, Doris Kelley. “He had a rapier tongue.”
John Kelley loved operas, crossword puzzles, golfing and travel and he did quite well with the dollar slots at Black Hawk.
He was born in Denver on April 8, 1949, earned his bachelor’s degree at Colorado College in Colorado Springs and his master’s in political science at the University of Colorado.
Before joining the department of human services here, he had a similar job in Las Animas County, where he started the Meals on Wheels program.
In addition to his brother, he is survived by two sisters: Kathy Howell of Littleton and Betty Kelley of Denver; and another brother, Jim Kelley, of Long Beach, Calif.
