by Bob Morrris
Meeting Terry Dick for the first time is like slipping on your favorite sweater—instantly warm, familiar, and comforting. His broad smile and kind blue eyes make you feel right at home, as if to say, “This is where I belong.” Then there’s that mustache—a distinctive, perfectly groomed signature that captures the richness, warmth, and unmistakable style that defines Terry.
I met with Terry recently at his beautiful home that he and Fran built not too far from where he grew up, but light years from how he grew up. And while he’s picked up a few wrinkles along the way, any scars from his childhood are hidden away. “Character builders,” he calls them, and with a big smile adds, “lessons to learn, steps to take.”
We often read about resilience in literature and poetry, but it’s rare to encounter it in real life. Every so often, you meet someone who has overcome daunting obstacles, someone whose story makes you pause and wonder, “How did they rise above it all and find success?”
This is the story of one such person. It begins at a nondescript frame house, shared by two families with just one bathroom in the shadow of Churchill Downs. It’s not far from there at G&R grocery store where we find nine-year-old Terry Dick sorting returned soft-drink bottles for a few cents a day. Once sorted, the bottles were placed in cartons and put on shelves for the vendors to pick up.
This was hard work, but Terry learned early he liked to work. “I started working at the grocery store when I was just nine, and I never stopped. I did just about anything and everything as a youngster.”
“One summer I went door to door and offered to wash your car for a $1.50, inside and out. I guaranteed my work. If you didn’t like the wash job, I’d do it over. I was never afraid of hard work,” Terry recalls. “And I never had a do over,” he laughs.
While Terry attended several schools growing up, it was at Westport High, at age 14, that he met Fran Croddy. In that moment, the melody and notes of life’s song were written. But let’s take a step back and take it from the top.
In elementary school Terry developed a love for music. “I decided I wanted to be a drummer, so with my various odd jobs, I saved up enough to buy a set of drums I found at Dan’s Pawn Shop. I picked up my first pair of sticks as a kid, and that was it—I was hooked. Something about the rhythm, the timing, the energy, it got into my bones and never left. Drumming became more than just a hobby. It became a language; one I felt completely at home speaking.”
“You know, Terry reflects looking back, my dad’s shortcomings strengthened me, I believe.” And for Terry, music gave him a way out, gave him light from the shadows at home.
It was 1967, the height of Rock N’ Roll when Terry, along with four of his buddies, formed a band called Crushed Velvet. Playing Top 40’s the band performed throughout the region at Proms, weddings, Belle of Louisville cruises, Toys for Tots, just about any venue where they could get a booking.
Terry remembers, “We traveled a great deal. We might leave on Friday and come home on Sunday.” Crushed Velvet would go on to record an album. “The band helped pay my way through college and while we stopped performing together in 2015, we continue to talk about reuniting.”
Circling back, it was December 1966, when Terry and Fran started seeing each other, “courting” as it was called in those days.
“Fran’s father, Ron Croddy must have seen something in me,” Terry remembers. “It was right before Christmas and Fran told me that her dad was going to take me to church, Beargrass Church. But first, Mr. Croddy sat me down and said, ‘Son, if you’re going to see my daughter, get a haircut.’ And you know, the first thing I did the next day was get a haircut,” Terry laughs.
Many Beargrass members will remember Ron and Barbara Croddy, and of course Fran. Barbara Croddy still attends whenever she can. “Ron was my mentor, someone I looked up to a great deal,” Terry recalls. “And Ron taking the time to bring me to church, here at Beargrass, those many years ago was just another positive road sign in my journey telling me to keep going, keep working, keep growing.”
But, as life often does, it threw a detour Terry’s way. The next summer, his father took a job in Cleveland, and the family moved. “I knew from the first day that I wasn’t going to stay in Cleveland,” Terry recalls. “Bus fare back to Louisville was $13. So, I skipped lunch at school and walked 66 blocks home every day to save the money. I was determined to get back—to see Fran. I saved enough, bought the bus ticket, and came home.”
Fran and Terry dated for seven years and would marry in 1974. While building a life together they also taught Sunday School for the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades at Beargrass for 13 years. In addition, they were sponsors for the youth choirs who at that time would travel to different churches as far away as Alabama and Kansas.
After high school Terry attended Jefferson Community College and the University of Louisville where he graduated with a degree in marketing management in 1974. During college and for a few years afterwards, Terry also worked full-time at Standard Gravure.
Terry always wanted to own and run his own business. “I thought, I can do better.”
After graduation from college Terry obtained his real estate and broker’s license but soon found the work on nights and weekends to be restrictive. After leaving real estate, he went to work in sales for his dad who owned American Mobile Glass. Auto Glass, another Louisville company, bought the business in 1975, and Terry worked for them until he had a chance to buy the business in 1988 and owned it until 2017.
With Terry at the helm of American Mobile Glass they grew to 17 employees in seven states. We operated from Florida to New York. “I picked up other businesses along the way, a screen printing and vinyl lettering business. When I saw an opportunity, I’d take it.” Terry says proudly, “Heck I had to stay busy to keep up with Fran.”
Fran had her own business, Fantastic Designs, which she operated for 12 years. She designed, installed, and operated a window treatment business including blinds, pillow skirts, mirrors, and Lexan signs. The banners currently in Chalice Hall and the sign in the Boy Scout Building were designed and installed by Fran. A former board chair at Beargrass, Fran who was a 50-year member, sadly passed away in 2015.
Terry and Fran’s daughter, Terrianne, lives here in Louisville with her husband, John Tremayne. They have two children, Emery 14 and Ella 12. With a big smile Terry says about his grandchildren, “We’re closer than two coats of paint. You can’t get any closer than that!”
After Fran passed away Terry and his daughter started Orange Picket Fence, a company that “flipped houses.” “Orange was Fran’s favorite color, so we picked that,” Terry mentioned, adding, “It’s not as easy to do today due to the cost of homes and material.” Terrianne now works with Jeremy Angermeier at Paradigm Construction Services remodeling homes, and her husband John is the facilities manager for Norton Health.
Terry is the drummer for Beargrass Creek. Now in retirement, as the “soundman” for Beargrass, he’s involved in all aspects of the music ministry. He starts on Thursday, setting up the equipment for the Praise Band making sure everything is in its place. Arriving at 6:30 or so on Sunday mornings he checks all the sound systems and guitar stands, looks for trip hazards, and a hundred other details before heading up to the sound booth for the two services. “I try to make sure everyone has what they need before the service,” Terry says proudly.
In his spare time, you might find Terry playing with the Beargrass Creek Band, alongside many members of the Beargrass Praise Band. Most recently, the group performed at First Christian Church in Shelbyville as part of the “Wheels of Hope” fundraiser, which helped offset the cost of a handicapped-accessible van for a family with two disabled children.
And there’s more. What many people may not know is that Terry is a movie star. Well, maybe just an extra but still his talents have carried him to the big screen. In 2023, Terry’s sister signed him up to be in the movie “Wildcat” filmed here in Louisville.
Starring Maya Hawke and Laura Linney and directed by Ethan Hawke, the movie is a fictional account of Southern novelist Flannery O’Connor as she struggles to publish her first novel. Terry’s scene takes place in a doctor’s office with Maya Hawke.
Terry laughs, “I cut my hair once for Mr. Croddy but when they ask me to cut my hair for the movie, I told them no, not even for Hollywood fame.” They said, “Well, we want you in the scene, so wear a hat.”
As we were wrapping up our visit Terry says, “Hey, come out in the garage, I’ve got something I want to show you.” It seems another passion Terry has is for cars, not just any cars but in this case a beautiful Plymouth Prowler. A two-door, two-passenger sports car, known for its handcrafted aluminum bodywork and its retro-hot rod styling with open, Indy racer-style front wheels. It’s a beauty.
There’s something about the rhythm—the timing, the energy of a drumbeat. The steady cadence of service, the joyful beat of a heart that loves deeply and gives freely. I truly enjoyed spending time with Terry and getting to know him. He’s one of the most genuine people you’ll ever meet, shaped by a life of hard work, a young and beautiful love, a passion for music and a caring, strong hand that led him to Beargrass Church all those years ago.
We Are One Together is a new monthly news feature by and about church members that celebrates the beautiful, diverse stories that make up our Beargrass family.
If you would like to be featured in an upcoming edition of We Are One Together or would like to recommend one of our members to be included please contact Bob Morris at 270-316-1267 or by email at bm*********@***oo.com.