Frequent contributor to Nice Woodworking journal, Kelly Mehler (1949– October 5, 2025) devoted his life to the craft of woodworking and the sharing of data. His profession spanned greater than 28 years, marked by a uncommon mix of workmanship, instructing, and generosity.
Kelly’s formal coaching started in 1974 on the College of Cincinnati’s Ohio School of Utilized Science, adopted by research in Industrial Arts at Berea School in Kentucky, the place he was mentored by the legendary woodturner Impolite Osolnik. That mentorship formed Kelly’s deep respect for each the method and the individuals behind nice craftsmanship.
In 1978, Kelly opened his furniture-making store in Berea, a city recognized for its thriving neighborhood of artisans. There, he constructed timeless furnishings and established the Kelly Mehler College of Woodworking, now referred to as Berea School’s Woodworking College at Pinecroft, the place college students come from throughout the nation to attend. All through his profession, Kelly’s affect reached far past his store doorways. He wrote The Tablesaw E book: a trusted useful resource for numerous woodworkers, and contributed greater than a dozen articles to Nice Woodworking and different publications.
Kelly Mehler leaves behind a legacy of workmanship, training, and kindness. His work continues to form workshops and encourage woodworkers all over the place who discovered from his phrases, his instructing, and his enduring love for the craft. Andy Glenn, Peter Galbert, and Brian Boggs share their recollections of Kelly beneath.
Andy Glenn
Kelly Mehler handed away on Sunday, October 5, 2025. Kelly was a fixture in Berea, KY, and recognized nationally throughout the woodworking neighborhood by way of his faculty (The Kelly Mehler College of Woodworking), his desk noticed e-book, and quite a few journal contributions.
I’m grateful to have recognized Kelly, and to have counted him as a buddy. Most individuals felt that approach round Kelly. Generosity and kindness radiated from him.
Our household met the Mehler’s early in our time in Berea. Kelly invited us over to their residence, and the Mehler’s pointed us in the direction of different younger households and woodworkers inside Berea. Teri took an immense curiosity in our children and household.
Then Kelly invited me to his store/faculty for a go to. It’s now Pine Croft. This was earlier than Pine Croft was an concept.
The store was immaculate. The machines have been in excellent order. There was no mud (how does a store don’t have any mud?!?…Kelly saved it in pristine situation). The machine room was downstairs – principally Felder machines, as Kelly would describe himself as a “machine” woodworker (he had robust hand expertise as nicely…although he downplayed these every time we talked woodworking).
The benchroom was the upstairs. A couple of dozen benches of various kinds. This was the handwork instructing area, with home windows wrapping the constructing. Kelly taught loads of lessons, and he invited visitor instructors to the area as nicely. The bench room is up within the bushes, surrounded by woods and the foothills of Appalachia, with a effervescent creek working behind the store. It’s about excellent.
The sound of birds was a relentless on the store. Kelly and Teri would watch and chronicle them throughout their migratory visits by way of Berea. Birds, creek, woods. It was a woodworking sanctuary for guests.
Throughout my years in Berea, the school bought the property and restarted the woodworking faculty (now named The Woodworking College at Pine Croft). I used to be to run it, following Kelly in his area.
I used to be excited, honored, and intimidated. Kelly constructed the area to his liking, which made it such a welcoming and distinctive store. Lots of the college students who took lessons got here to Berea as a result of of Kelly (and Teri). The Mehler’s generosity drew in others.
How do I do know this? The scholars advised me.
My nerves have been applicable however finally unfounded. Kelly supported me at each flip. He put in sort phrases along with his former college students. He confirmed me easy methods to finest function all of the tools, and the way the store finest functioned. We constructed a number of items of furnishings collectively, within the area, in order that I might undergo the paces. After which he taught one of many first lessons at Pine Croft, which was full of longtime mates and returning college students, to assist get the college going once more.
Quick ahead a number of years. Our household had returned to Maine. I used to be working Pine Croft from a distance (dumb, working the college from Maine, however essential to maintain issues going throughout these early years of Pine Croft).
I might bunch a handful of lessons collectively on the schedule, then I’d return to Berea for a 3 or 4 weeks stretch to run the store. At all times upon returning to Berea, as pulled off Massive Hill Highway and traveled down the lengthy lane in the direction of the woodworking faculty, I might discover that Kelly and Teri have been already there, ready for me to reach. They’d be pulling weeds, selecting up sticks, freshening the flower beds, and opening the home windows to let the breeze by way of. They have been there to assist with out being requested.
Kelly would then provide a day’s assist. He needed to help with the category preparations. So we’d mill and clear and work collectively within the days earlier than lessons began. He’d normally ask for some machine work, and I’d share with him the plan. Then Kelly would head out, buy the provides, and get to work. Inevitably, as he helped, I might study from him.
This was all volunteer work, performed out of kindness.
He’d assist with every little thing. Time to wash and vacuum out the mud collector? Kelly’s there along with his mud masks and glasses. The change on the bandsaw is performing spotty? Kelly’s there to have a look. The place can we discover thick basswood at late discover? Kelly’s driving me to his spot in Lexington.
That is how he handled individuals, and the way he shared himself.
The massive smile and welcoming presence have been packaged with an immense quantity of woodworking expertise. He didn’t lead with it…he inquired about you, about your work, about your well being. However when you seemed over his shoulder, or glanced at his bench, you’d see one thing stunning.
If my reminiscence is right, Kelly began in a furnishings store in Cincinnati (after a stretch at promoting vehicles). From Cincy, he went to Berea School and labored inside their furnishings program for a yr. Kelly had expertise, so the store workers gave him a key and he got here in to work as a lot as he preferred. Then he opened his first store, in a barn, in Mount Vernon (a number of miles south of Berea). With no warmth, it was a tough go. Issues have been tight. However he continued on.
Quickly after, his store moved into Berea and Kelly operated a store/showroom on Berea’s primary avenue (the place the library presently stands). Showroom out entrance, store within the again. Then, perhaps 20 years in the past, Kelly constructed his store within the bushes.
His work was beautiful. He crammed their home with it and shared it with others.
Andy Glenn’s Substack might be discovered right here.
Peter Galbert
I’m heartbroken to be mourning the lack of Kelly Mehler. Kelly was very unassuming and humble, however his influence was large. A few of you could not know Kelly, his faculty in Berea, Kentucky closed years in the past when he started having well being points and was reborn as PineCroft . In addition to being a tremendous furnishings maker and educator, his affect on the woodworking neighborhood has been profound, particularly to me. He was an early supporter of myself, Greg Pennington, Chris Schwarz… the checklist goes on. I’ve at all times referred again to Kelly in dialog when complimented about my instructing setting. Kelly set the gold commonplace for the way a college ought to run. He paid the instructors very nicely and targeted on making certain it was a cheerful and welcoming place to study and train. I mannequin my very own setting after what I discovered from him and his great spouse Teri. Greg and I shared a lot of enjoyable occasions at their place. It was at all times a spotlight of my yr to show there and spend time with Kelly and Teri. Each time I’d ask Kelly, “How ya doin?” he’d reply, “So good I really feel responsible”. His pleasure and power have been infectious.
There are just a few individuals I’ve met that I nonetheless describe as “Once I develop up, I wish to be like them”, Kelly is on prime of that checklist. His kindness, good humor and ability shone brightly. I’m so grateful for his generosity and instance.
Peter Galbert’s Substack might be discovered right here.
Brian Boggs
I met Kelly in 1981, after I was a scholar at Berea School. His store, The Treefinery, occupied a main spot on Fundamental Road—inconceivable to overlook for a younger man with furnishings making on his thoughts. Not lengthy after I left school, Kelly employed me to assist prep for one of many native craft exhibits. It was only a short-term gig, but it surely supplied a great glimpse into the lifetime of a furnishings maker who knew easy methods to maintain issues enjoyable.
Cash wasn’t actually the aim; it was extra a couple of way of life—perhaps simply life itself. Even below a decent present deadline, the ambiance within the store was lighthearted, a direct reflection of its proprietor. Trying again over greater than forty years of understanding Kelly, each reminiscence consists of him smiling, and normally laughing. And that was true even when life wasn’t straightforward.
Berea was—and nonetheless is—a small city. When my first spouse, Pat, and I began our household, there was precisely one birthing coach on the town: Kelly’s spouse, Teri. She was an exquisite coach and an enormous help for us, which saved us much more linked to the Mehlers. Over time, I grew to admire each Kelly and Teri for his or her deep integrity and their wholehearted way of life.
As a younger chairmaker, I typically turned to Kelly for recommendation about discovering my footing within the skilled woodworking world. Years later, it was an honor when he invited me to show at his faculty. Kelly Mehler’s College of Woodworking was, in each approach, a mirrored image of the person himself—small, tidy, welcoming, and full of good humor and pleasure for everybody who got here by way of the door.
Reminiscences of Kelly maintain a heat place in my coronary heart. He stays a gentle supply of inspiration for easy methods to stay nicely, snort simply, and method each craft and life with sincerity and charm.
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