Richard ‘Dick’ Wehrli, prominent Naperville businessman and philanthropist, dies at 90
Richard “Dick” Wehrli, a prominent Naperville businessman and philanthropist who was instrumental in bringing North Central College’s athletics stadium to life, died Saturday, according to his family. He was 90 years old.
In a call Monday, Dick Wehrli’s son, Naperville Mayor Scott Wehrli, said, “This is a difficult time.” But he and his family know that his dad “is keeping an eye on us to make sure we take care of Naperville and our college going forward,” he said.
To Scott Wehrli, his dad will be remembered as one of the “builders of Naperville.”
A lifelong resident of Naperville, Dick Wehrli was born Oct. 4, 1934, and grew up in Naperville’s historic Pre-Emption House. Built in the 1860s, the building was one of the earliest hotels built west of Chicago and had ties to the Wehrli family. His mother and 12 brothers and sisters lived there until it was torn down in 1946.
Recalling stories his dad told of his childhood, Scott Wehrli said Naperville at that time was “just a much different world,” with the town’s mid- to late-20th century growth spurt still decades away. His dad wouldn’t often speak of himself, Wehrli said, but did talk about “people who had influenced him or had made significant impressions on himself and the community.”
Wehrli graduated with a business degree in 1956 from Naperville’s North Central College, where he was a star player on the school’s basketball team and was among the their leading scorers in the 1955 and 1956 seasons.
Post-college, Dick Wehrli served in the Army National Guard of Illinois from 1957 to 1962 while putting his business education into practice.
After working for a small ready mix concrete producer for a few years, he and his wife, Judy, started Naperville Ready Mix in 1959, operating from their duplex’s one-car garage. Eventually, it grew. And expanded.
In 1964, Dick Wehrli started a second venture, Naperville Excavating, to perform work for developers Harold and Jim Moser just as Naperville’s building boom started to get underway. In the 1970s, he started two other companies, Mustang Construction and Dukane Precast.
All four businesses are still in operation, said Scott Wehrli, who is principal owner of Dukane Precast.
While his business aspirations grew, Dick Wehrli never forgot about his time at North Central.
In fact, his association with the college “was probably the thing that he was most proud of,” Scott Wehrli said of his dad. For all that the college had done for his dad, he continuously tried to return the favor in the decades after his graduation, Wehrli said.
In the 1970s, Wehrli and a few other alumni led an effort to provide the college with its first true athletics stadium. Before their efforts, North Central’s stadium was “pretty rickety,” Wehrli said.
In 1996, the stadium he had helped establish was irreparably damaged in historic summer flooding. Dick Wehrli and fellow alumni Al Benedetti launched a fundraising campaign to rebuild and in 2003, the facility was renamed the Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium.
In 2006, Wehrli was inducted into North Central College’s Athletic Hall of Fame for his contributions to the program. He was an active member of the college’s Board of Trustees from 1981 through 2004.
On Monday, North Central President Abiódún Gòkè-Pariolá sent a message to the campus community about Wehrli’s death.
“Dick Wehrli is a legendary figure in the life and history of North Central College,” he said in the campus message. “His legacy will endure on our campus for generations to come.”
Scott Wehrli said it was his father who imbued him with a sense of responsibility to uphold the family legacy, both at North Central and in the broader community.
Dick Wehrli served on the boards of several local civic organizations and was a founding member of the group that ultimately came together to build the Naperville Riverwalk.
Still, his time in the city wasn’t without its shortcomings. In 2018, he was involved in an incident in which he drove his SUV at a construction worker for which he was sentenced to court supervision.
Scott Wehrli, though not speaking to the 2018 incident, recognized that his dad was “very, very far from perfect.”
But his father always had a way of passing on subtle wisdom and asking questions that allowed him to guide his own life, which he’s going to miss, he said.
And he’s never going to forget just how much community meant to his dad. It’s a lesson he carries on as mayor.
“That was kind of what was instilled in my heart,” he said. “You give back to your community because your community gave you so much.”
In addition to Scott Wehrli, Dick Wehrli is survived by another son, Robert, six grandchildren, five great grandchildren, two sisters and a sister-in-law. He was preceded in death by his wife, whom he married in 1955.
Visitation will be from 3 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Friedrich-Jones Funeral Home & Cremation Services in Naperville. A funeral mass will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Naperville.
