George Keeler

George Keeler
“That’s my past, but it’s also my future.”
An avid outdoorsman, George Keeler used to fight rapids, working as a whitewater guide in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and California. As a kayaker, he almost qualified for the Olympics. On his mountain bike, he used to grind up and down canyon trails; he’s even ridden through Europe four times.
But now he’s a daddy.

“Nowadays, I’m relegated to going down a path with a burly trailer and two children,” said the department chair of communications, his throwback haircut shooting his hair straight down, covering his ears, a Keeler trademark.

But Keeler got a late start to the whole family gig. Joking that he’s been 10 years behind on everything in his life, Keeler got married when he was 40 and had his first child Nathan, now 7, when he was 44. Before that, his free time was saturated with outdoor activity.

“Teaching distorts your personality,” he said, “and one way to heal it is to return to nature. I return to nature, but I return with incredible zest.”

“That’s my past…”

A rabid mountain biker, Keeler loved to bike the canyon trails in the shadows of the foothills, but those trails were slowly going the way of the equine.

So Keeler started and led a mountain biking patrol group of about 40 people, all carrying walkie talkies to keep in constant contact. (Ever the leader and catalyst for change, Keeler has also started groups to oppose building the 210, widening Baseline Road and the annexation of the canyon areas, their only victory.)

“We saved the trails for mountain bikes,” he said.

But that is just on land. Keeler’s outdoor resume deepens significantly with his experience on the water. He originally found the whitewater in 1980 through Coach Roland Ortmayer, “Ort,” as he was widely, affectionately known.

Ort took Keeler and two others and made them into whitewater guides, escorting groups of up to 100 people in various states throughout the Western United States.

“My summers were captured by whitewater,” Keeler said.

In fact, one of the three still pursues the hobby today, “in the footsteps of Coach Ort,” Keeler said.

But soon, this summer activity leaked into the winter, as Keeler and his fellow guides fell in with a diehard “cult” of kayakers, he said, who perpetually searched for any sign of whitewater, sleeping in their cars if they had to, one thing Keeler could never bring himself to do.

“They raced, so we raced with them,” he said.

One of those races happened to be the Pacific Southwest Whitewater Championships in 1985, the “feeder for the Olympics,” Keeler said.

Although he did not qualify, Keeler braved the 32-degree Kern River rapids and will never forget it.

But his love for his therapy began long before he hit the rapids with Ort. Born in the buffer zone between the city of La Verne and the canyons in a house where he still lives, Keeler opted to head north, into the wild to play.

“My childhood was spent in the canyons,” he said, recalling one of his earliest hobbies: “butterfly collecting in a serious way.”

In fact, the Keeler house always hosted an eclectic menagerie of canyon critters, including raccoons, skunks and snakes, even a goat, in addition to the requisite dogs and cats. Keeler, a 4H Club president, one of his first leadership roles in a long, continuous line, even had 20 ducks at one time.

“We were the hillbillies of the neighborhood,” he said. “We had this existential view on nature, self-trained, self-appreciated.”

In fact, he still has two turtles that he caught 45 years ago living in his house, the same house in which he grew up.

“In some ways,” he said, “my childhood continues through my two pets.”

“…but it’s also my future.”

“So much of my traditions, and since I’m living in the same house, I can pass on to Nathan and Rebecca,” Keeler said.

Now, Keeler and his wife Jeanette do what they can to marry this love for the outdoors with the logistics of raising a 1 and 7 year old.

“I have the most wonderful wife in the world who appreciates mud on the floor and adventure and spontaneity,” he said. “That’s about the only way we can be as a family. Our kids have made us appreciate the moment. I try to slow things down and appreciate the moment.”

Currently, Keeler’s outdoor activity consists primarily of tossing the baseball around with Nathan, who has just gotten into tee-ball, another tradition Keeler remembers doing as a child.

But all the while, a room full of camping and outdoor equipment, in addition to five kayaks in the garage, sits idle, waiting.

And then there’s the $4,000 raft in the closet.

“I’m waiting for the children to grow up a little more,” he said. “They know they’re ready to go whitewater rafting when they can carry the 150-pound raft with me.”

THE PROFESSOR

For his students, Keeler said the first step to ULV success is to realize the seriousness particular to Communications Department work.

“I publish my students’ work,” he said. “Everything I do in here is with the understanding that this is the real world. We’re there. This is it. We are most students’ first job. We don’t play TV; we don’t play radio; we don’t play magazine; we don’t play newspaper. It’s for real.

“I’ve told students that when they get their first job, it’s going to be like a vacation.”

In fact, as head of one of the University’s most successful departments, Keeler shows no sign of slowing things down. The Communications Department’s publications and productions consistently win national awards.

“We have a very high standard, and we want to keep that level of excellence,” he said.

But Keeler is more than that.

“I’m a coach,” he said. “I’m a mentor. I’m a cheerleader. I stand as the example. I have to keep hot in the profession myself. I’m always the teacher. I think about the University of La Verne every waking moment. It haunts my dreams. I’m always thinking about doing it better. Students come in here with these dreams, and if they’re willing to pay the price, I am reasonably sure they’ll arrive.”

His students agree. They will readily offer evidence of Keeler’s constant selflessness. He will put the entire Communications Department in motion to partially further the success of just one student. And he does not ask for much in return.

In fact, the highest compliment for this department chair, professor, adviser and internship coordinator? “A very simple ‘Thank you. I appreciate what you did.’”

RETURN TO FACULTY LIST

George Keeler

☛Go to Communications Department Home Page☚