Spotlight: Imagine yourself as rug royalty

GILFORD — How did Rick Kelly become the “King of Klean?” He didn’t seek the crown; the crown sought him.

Kelly had just convinced his wife, Jennifer, that they should move to his native New Hampshire, instead of her Minnesota, to start their family. He had just finished four years of service in the U.S. Army and had a degree in business from the University of Hawaii, and he wasn’t sure how he was going to put that degree to use.

“I’ll buy a little portable machine and do carpet cleaning until I get a real job,” he said he told Jennifer. He put an ad in the newspaper, and his phone started ringing right away. “We were literally extremely busy since the first week,” he said.

Kelly, who started “King of Klean,” based in Gilford, in 2003, is a native of Brooklyn, New York, but spent most of his youth in Meredith. He graduated from Inter-Lakes High School in 1998 and enlisted in the Army, in which he was assigned the job of pallbearer. For three-and-a-half years, he attended burials of military veterans and conveyed the federal government’s gratitude to the deceased’s loved ones.

“I felt a real purpose doing it. It was something I really enjoyed, being able to honor a veteran,” he said of his service. “It was pretty moving, each and every time.”

He was stationed in Hawaii for his service, and he was able to attend the University of Hawaii when he wasn’t on duty. Also while he was off-duty, he began to develop a relationship with Jennifer, a Minnesota girl who first came to the Schofield Barracks on Oahu to visit her aunt and uncle, the latter of whom was also stationed there. Kelly met her on base, and the two were devoted to one another before they knew it. Jennifer, who was a college student in Minnesota at the time, transferred to UH, and the two got married in Hawaii.

The Kellys now live in Gilford, where they raise two girls and a boy, ranging in age from 6 to 10. It’s not just their family that has grown; King of Klean is also booming. Kelly, with assistance from Rob Connelly, his boyhood friend and general manager, operates a business of 11 employees.

King of Klean’s first several years were focused on residential carpet cleaning. In the past few years, though, Kelly has been exploring the niche of rug cleaning. He found that a lot of his clients were asking him if he could clean their braided or Oriental rugs, which require a different cleaning technique than carpeting.

“The way to do these is to do them in a shop,” he said. But his clients had trouble finding such a shop, so in 2015, Kelly decided to open one in Gilford, with a rug drop-off center on Union Avenue in Laconia. The business has grown to the point where King of Klean will handle as many as 300 rugs per month. This fall, Kelly plans to open a drop-off office in Concord, and will add one in Plymouth in the spring of next year.

“It was never in the business plan,” Kelly said, but he couldn’t ignore the opportunity he saw in rug cleaning. “There were a lot of rugs that weren’t getting cleaned properly.”

Providing the service is more than taking in dirty rugs and returning them cleaned. Most of the rugs carry with them a history, and their value to their owners is far more than monetary.

“These are people’s rugs that have been passed on for years. People look you in the eye and say, ‘Please take care of this rug.’ It’s an honor to be trusted with their rugs.”

As his business has succeeded, Kelly has made it a point to use his success to contribute to others in the community. He has funded sports scholarships through Gilford Parks and Rec, and has given to many local sports, arts, veterans and health organizations. Most recently, he has partnered with Porter Paving to put up a scoreboard at the Gilford High School baseball field.

When he’s not running the company, Kelly is probably on that or another athletic field. He coaches baseball and basketball, and Jennifer also volunteers her time for local youth, serving on the PTA and VSA in Gilford, when she’s not caring for their own children.

“She’s a huge staple of our business. I could not be running this business if not for her doing what she’s doing behind the scenes,” Kelly said. As much as he can, he is right there with her.

“That’s our fun, raising the kids, being part of their sports. That’s the most fun I have at this stage of my life, watching my kids grow up.”