RICHMOND - Nancy Kelly said she was roused from a deep sleep late last week by a feeling that something had happened to her husband. Call it intuition, or the bond that forms after 25 years of marriage, but Kelly knew on some level that Staff Sgt. Dale James Kelly Jr. was in trouble in Iraq.

On Saturday night, a chaplain from the Maine Army National Guard showed up on the doorstep of her Richmond home with the news that Kelly had been killed by a roadside bomb. Kelly, who turned 48 on Nov. 30, died instantly.

He had served his country for 18 years, initially as a loadmaster with the Rhode Island National Guard's 143rd Tactical Airlift group out of Quonset Point in North Kingston, and most recently with B Company, 3rd Battalion of the 172nd Infantry Regiment, Maine Army National Guard.

"I had this horrible feeling in my chest," said Nancy Kelly, who celebrated her 25th wedding anniversary last December. "I just knew something had happened."

Nancy Kelly said she was told that her husband was riding in the lead truck of a three-truck convoy headed toward Mosul when the bomb exploded.

The Kellys lived in Brunswick for a number of years before moving to Richmond about five years ago. Their three children - all adults now - graduated from Brunswick High School and Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham.

The couple are longtime members of St. Paul's Episcopal Church on Pleasant Street in Brunswick, where Dale Kelly served as a mentor in the church's Journey to Adulthood program.

Two years ago he led a mission to Steertown, an impoverished city in Jamaica, where Kelly and several high-school-age students helped build a community center. Kelly also offered his medical expertise to the city's children, treating minor injuries and scrapes, his wife said.

Soldiers in his battalion referred to Kelly, who was a trained medic, as "Doc Kelly."

Linda Ashe-Ford, who serves as director of Christian education for St. Paul's, said she had to break the news about his death to the congregation Sunday. The children he had mentored in the Journey to Adulthood program were devastated.

"It hit really hard," said Ashe-Ford. "He touched a lot of lives in this church."

"His faith was strong," his wife noted.

The Kellys live on Pleasant Street, a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood within walking distance of Richmond's downtown and its waterfront.

Dale Kelly had worked in management positions at Bath Iron Works for the past 17 years, and, according to his family, was instrumental in securing and sending two welding units to Iraq. Those welding units were used to reinforce the armor on Humvees. His wife said Kelly was planning to retire from BIW so he could return to school and pursue a career in nursing.

Mike Keenan, president of Local S6, BIW's largest union, said the entire shipyard will miss Kelly. Keenan said there is no way to know how many lives Kelly helped save in Iraq through his efforts in getting the welding units sent overseas.

"He had a superb reputation with the (union) guys," Keenan said. "He was one of a kind. He put the worker first, which is a rare commodity. He is going to be greatly missed."

Nancy Kelly said she will remember him for his selflessness and an example of how much good one person can do for his fellow man.

She said he frequently stopped whenever he came across a traffic accident to check on the well-being of the people involved.

Nancy Kelly recalled an incident two years ago near Rangeley when her husband spotted and went to the rescue of a 2-year- old child who had fallen into a stream by a waterfall.

"It never made it into the papers because Dale was a humble man. He just acted," she said.

The family plans to announce funeral details after Dale Kelly's body arrives in Maine.

Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 725-8795 or at:

dhoey@pressherald.com