Bob Keller Member Spotlight September 18, 2016
In central Kansas, about 50 miles west of Wichita, is a little town called Penalosa. That’s where Bob Keller grew up on a farm. In another little town close by, Donna Keller grew up, and Bob met her while they were still in high school, and they later married. They have four children, two boys and two girls. The youngest boy lives in Georgetown and they moved to Taylor to be close to him. The other three live in Florida, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. They have nine grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren, with two more arriving soon. Bob says the experience of having children made him a stronger person. All of us parents know what he means!
Bob was one of seven children himself, six boys and one girl. A favorite family story is about Bob and his brother climbing the outside of a 60-foot tall silo to install a blower pipe.
It’s that can-do attitude that held Bob in good stead in his years of working for Boeing and later as manager of computer programming for IBM. Going from a time when they used punch cards for programming up until the modern computer era, Bob saw a lot of change in his field. In the last 4 or 5 years of work, he worked on Data and Process Programming, and used a modeling tool which he got very good at, and enjoyed doing.
The Keller family moved every 7 years until Bob retired, living such places as New Orleans, Huntsville, Alabama, and Little Meadows, Pennsylvania. Everywhere they lived, they made life-long friends.
After retiring, Bob and Donna moved back to the Penalosa, Kansas farm where he was raised. They raised show llamas for 17 years, and Bob was treasurer and later president for the Golden Plains Llama Association. They entered their llamas into many shows and had three champion male llamas that were in the top ten in the nation.
Bob and Donna joined Taylor FUMC three years ago when they moved to Taylor. He was an enthusiastic member of the Grace Notes choir, playing guitar and even learning bass to add to the music. He says playing guitar is the most fun he has ever had, and Donna reports he has a very nice voice. Bob’s favorite hymns are “Here I Am, Lord” and “The Hymn of Promise”. The music to “Here I Am, Lord” is chiseled into his headstone.
Even his church friends may not know that he used to carry a 172 average in bowling, and that he has a garden railway layout that includes 4 complete trains, buildings, people, horses and wild animals and 600 ft. of track. Be on the lookout! He may set it up for Christmas this year. Bob collects many things including belt buckles (beginning with his dad’s collection), coins, butter churns, and depression glass. And if money were no object, Bob would set up a charity foundation that would provide babysitting services to allow women with small children to attend college.
What a blessing to us that Bob Keller is a member of our church!
