Walt Keeshen, Jr., former newspaper reporter, magazine editor, and IBM communications executive, died at home on January 29, 2009, surrounded by family, in Morgan Hill, CA, of complications from prostate and liver cancer. He was 78. He and his wife, Kathleen Kearney Keeshen, moved to Morgan Hill from Ridgefield, CT, more than 25 years ago.
Mr. Keeshen was born on March 2, 1930, in Ft. Worth, TX, to Walter Aloysius Keeshen of Cedar Rapids, IA, and Zula Mattox Wright Keeshen of Abilene, TX. After his mother’s early death, he was devoted to his stepmother, Winnie Clifton Keeshen.
Active for many years in Scouting, he was an Eagle Scout with two palms and a member of the Order of the Arrow. On the ROTC staff of the City of Los Angeles, he had served as an adjutant-general.
He was also an outstanding high-school gymnast. He graduated from North Hollywood High School in 1948, where he was an editor of The Arcade, the school paper, working side-by-side with Susan Sontag. Mr. Keeshen’s newspapering career began in Southern California where he was a copy boy for the San Fernando Valley Times. While attending UCLA, he was the Valley Times’ staff photographer and feature news reporter. Called into service during the Korean conflict, he served as a 1st Lieutenant in the Army of the United States in the Quartermaster Corps under the direction of SHAEF headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Returning to the States in 1955, he became a “combination man,” creating full-page features. Some of his most exciting stories included descriptions of his flights accompanying Edwards Air Force Base test pilots, often flying faster than the speed of sound.
Named editor of Western Aviation Missiles & Space Magazine, he scored a significant “first” by garnering an interview by correspondence with then-Presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon on their views about national air defense. The article appeared not only in Western Aviation, but in Washington’s Congressional Record and won the Western Magazine of the Year Award for best reporting.
Mr. Keeshen joined the IBM Corporation in 1961 in its Los Angeles aerospace industry offices. He received numerous awards, promotions, and assignments, and transferred among a number of IBM East Coast and West Coast locations, including San Jose, San Francisco, and Los Gatos in California; and Fishkill, Harrison, Kingston, Mohansic, Poughkeepsie, and White Plains, in New York. He also represented IBM in international communications projects around the world. He retired from IBM in 1992. In all, he had managed the communications operations for three development laboratories on both coasts, six product development divisions, and a marketing division.
He took great pride in having served as foreman for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Grand Jury in 1998 and human services investigative chairman for the 2006-2007 State of California’s Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury, where he put his journalistic talents to exceptionally fine use.
He enjoyed his family immensely. He also loved traveling, especially relishing trips captaining cabin cruisers on the Shannon River in Ireland and enjoying the sites and restaurants of one of his favorite cities, Paris, the City of Light. He also enjoyed computers and the pleasures of collecting clocks and books. He was known for his spontaneous wit and his keen sense of humor wherever he went.
Mr. Keeshen is survived by his wife Kathleen and by five children and a step-son and their families, which include 16 grandchildren: Michael Patrick Keeshen and Libby Wallace of Greenville, SC (granddaughter Sara Wallace-Keeshen); Walt John Keeshen, III and Debbie Keeshen of Kennesaw, Georgia (grandchildren Walt John Keeshen, IV, and Ashley Elizabeth Keeshen); Kathleen Marie Keeshen and Michael T. Nolan of Davis, CA (grandchildren Thomas Middleton, Daniel Wright, Eimile Beaucoudray and Ciaran Christopher Nolan); William Thomas Keeshen and Kristin Bieraugel Keeshen (grandchildren: Stephanie Anne, Caroline Marie, Matthew Thomas, Katelyn Nicole, and Claire Renee Keeshen), Ralph Timothy Keeshen of Portland, Maine, and John Christopher Day and Lucina Sanjuan Day of Gilroy, CA (grandchildren: John Mansfield, Alison Adair, Christina Marie, and James Cameron Day).
Private family services will be followed later by a Celebration of Life locally and military funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.
In lieu of flowers, he would have preferred donations be made to Pathways Hospice Foundation, 585 N. Mary Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA, 94085.
