TERRY MOSHER
He wondered why I was willing to do a story on his brother even though his brother lived and went to high school in Forest Grove, Ore. Larry Keller wasn’t complaining, he was just surprised that I was more than willing to do the Tom Keller story.
The answer seems complex, but really it has two parts. One, Larry Keller is and has been an important part of the Kitsap Community as now the retired executive director of the non-profit Kitsap Mental Health Services that is a valuable part of our community and, two, I would be surprised if there are more than a few of us that have not been affected by the sudden loss of somebody we love, as is the case here.
So this story begs to be told.
In fact, Larry Keller has been stuck twice by untimely death – his brother 58 years ago and a son – Ira James ‑ that died eight years ago at 27 from a heart condition.
You know, life is not fair that way. But that’s the way it is. I believe we are here to experience the good, the bad and the ugly and along with the pleasure and the beauty of the good come the bad and the ugly that can cause lasting pain.
I remember talking to a former classmate who lost a child at an early age and the comment I got back was that the pain belonged to her. She owned it, nobody could take it from her, and she was going to live with it until she died.
So if you haven’t experienced the lost of a loved one, I guess you have not lived. It’s part of who we are, unfortunately.
What makes Tom Keller’s death so debilitating is that he appeared to be on the way to a very promising future and probably would have had a positive impact on society wherever he landed as an adult if only he had heeded his mother’s request that he not go elk hunting that day on November, 29, 1958.
Tom was just 17 and a very athletic and an academically inclined senior (an honor student) at Forest Grove High School (he was the senior class president and president of the Lettermen’s Club) when he was mistaken for an elk and accidently shot (the shooter was charged with manslaughter, but was acquitted at trial).Tom Keller died later that day at Seaside Hospital.
“When my brother died – we were raised Catholic but didn’t go to church much – I probably prayed for three months every day that this was a bad dream,” Larry Keller said. “Finally, I knew it wasn’t a bad dream and it wasn’t going to change. I was upset with God and the whole spiritual thing. I was done with it. I was 12 years old at the time.”
It wasn’t until his son died that Keller, now 70, came full circle.
“I decided o get back involved spiritually to find out what we are doing here,” says Keller. “I really needed to understand Christianity and the Bible, so I just studied and studied.
“I didn’t have a terrible life style anyway, but I certainly changed my spiritual life since my son passed away,” Larry Keller says. “I told myself, ‘I’m going the other way with this, and it makes me a better person in a lot of ways.”
And now he and his wife are involved with New Life at its Sunday campus at Klahowya Secondary School.
“It’s kind of a haven for us for what is going on in the world,” he says.
Tom Keller was a running back and a linebacker or defensive back in football for Forest Grove. He also played the outfield and was a relief pitcher for the school’s baseball team.
An Oregon state senator recommended Tom Keller for nomination to the Air Force Academy and he also had interest from Linfield College for football.
“I know he would have played at least football, one way or the other,” says Larry Keller of his brother, who was six-feet and 175 pounds.
But being a good athlete and excellent student was just part of the Tom Keller that continues to be remembered at Forest Grove through a Tom Keller Memorial Award that has been presented at the school for 58 years (Larry Keller received it in 1963) and through a Forest Grove High School Hall of Fame induction Oct. 8 at ceremonies that will be held at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Ore.
Mark Kirchmeier, a writer for the Pamplin Media Group’s News Times, wrote a story about Tom Keller and his up-coming induction into the Hall of fame and in it he talked about Tom having a newspaper route, trapping beaver and muskrat and picking beans, broccoli, gooseberries and strawberries during the summer to supplement family income (Keller’s dad was a logger) and purchase school clothes.
By all accounts, Tom Keller was a very aware and solid citizen who had empathy in spades and passion and determination to make the best out of his ability whether in sports or away from the competitive arena.
He was much loved and an inspiration even in his teen years.
“He was real value-based and always oriented so whatever he did, and he essentially did the right things for the right reasons,” says Larry Keller. “Whatever he would have done he would have done it very successfully. He had tremendous potential in him.”
Larry Keller tells of the time that his brother told him that if they did one push-up every day they would get to 100. Larry wasn’t much into it, but inspired by his older brother he agreed to try it. They started out at doing 30 each and, by god, they eventually got where they both could do 100 push-ups.
There was also the time that Tom Keller took care of the bully who was causing Larry problems. The bully was an athletic kid, but Larry said his brother quickly stopped it by going up to the kid and pushing him back while telling him to never monkey with his little brother again.
Problem solved.
Larry Keller’s dad passed away in 1995 at the age of 79, but his mother lives now not now far from the family home in Forest Grove in assisted living at the age of 98.
When he asked his mom how she and his dad handled Tom’s death, Keller said his mom replied,” I think about him every single day.”
Asked how she and his dad handled it together, she said, “We didn’t talk about it. We didn’t talk about it once.
But, his mother added, “I could hear him crying in the bathroom from time to time.”
Larry Keller said, “To never talk about it; isn’t that something? When somebody you lose that you love, you live with it. You don’t cry on everybody’s shoulder, but it doesn’t go away.”
There are a lot of ifs with a story like this – would Tom Keller had gone to the Air Force Academy, would he have had kids, but nobody really knows. All we know is the tremendous loss, the terrible pain, the family suffered and continue to feel.
When Tom Keller lay dying n the Seaside Hospital, his last words were not about him and how terrible it was for him.
No, it wasn’t.
“Poor mama, poor mama,” Tom Keller uttered.
He wondered why I was willing to do a story on his brother even though his brother lived and went to high school in Forest Grove, Ore. Larry Keller wasn’t complaining, he was just surprised that I was more than willing to do the Tom Keller story.
The answer seems complex, but really it has two parts. One, Larry Keller is and has been an important part of the Kitsap Community as now the retired executive director of the non-profit Kitsap Mental Health Services that is a valuable part of our community and, two, I would be surprised if there are more than a few of us that have not been affected by the sudden loss of somebody we love, as is the case here.
So this story begs to be told.
In fact, Larry Keller has been stuck twice by untimely death – his brother 58 years ago and a son – Ira James ‑ that died eight years ago at 27 from a heart condition.
You know, life is not fair that way. But that’s the way it is. I believe we are here to experience the good, the bad and the ugly and along with the pleasure and the beauty of the good come the bad and the ugly that can cause lasting pain.
I remember talking to a former classmate who lost a child at an early age and the comment I got back was that the pain belonged to her. She owned it, nobody could take it from her, and she was going to live with it until she died.
So if you haven’t experienced the lost of a loved one, I guess you have not lived. It’s part of who we are, unfortunately.
What makes Tom Keller’s death so debilitating is that he appeared to be on the way to a very promising future and probably would have had a positive impact on society wherever he landed as an adult if only he had heeded his mother’s request that he not go elk hunting that day on November, 29, 1958.
Tom was just 17 and a very athletic and an academically inclined senior (an honor student) at Forest Grove High School (he was the senior class president and president of the Lettermen’s Club) when he was mistaken for an elk and accidently shot (the shooter was charged with manslaughter, but was acquitted at trial).Tom Keller died later that day at Seaside Hospital.
“When my brother died – we were raised Catholic but didn’t go to church much – I probably prayed for three months every day that this was a bad dream,” Larry Keller said. “Finally, I knew it wasn’t a bad dream and it wasn’t going to change. I was upset with God and the whole spiritual thing. I was done with it. I was 12 years old at the time.”
It wasn’t until his son died that Keller, now 70, came full circle.
“I decided o get back involved spiritually to find out what we are doing here,” says Keller. “I really needed to understand Christianity and the Bible, so I just studied and studied.
“I didn’t have a terrible life style anyway, but I certainly changed my spiritual life since my son passed away,” Larry Keller says. “I told myself, ‘I’m going the other way with this, and it makes me a better person in a lot of ways.”
And now he and his wife are involved with New Life at its Sunday campus at Klahowya Secondary School.
“It’s kind of a haven for us for what is going on in the world,” he says.
Tom Keller was a running back and a linebacker or defensive back in football for Forest Grove. He also played the outfield and was a relief pitcher for the school’s baseball team.
An Oregon state senator recommended Tom Keller for nomination to the Air Force Academy and he also had interest from Linfield College for football.
“I know he would have played at least football, one way or the other,” says Larry Keller of his brother, who was six-feet and 175 pounds.
But being a good athlete and excellent student was just part of the Tom Keller that continues to be remembered at Forest Grove through a Tom Keller Memorial Award that has been presented at the school for 58 years (Larry Keller received it in 1963) and through a Forest Grove High School Hall of Fame induction Oct. 8 at ceremonies that will be held at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Ore.
Mark Kirchmeier, a writer for the Pamplin Media Group’s News Times, wrote a story about Tom Keller and his up-coming induction into the Hall of fame and in it he talked about Tom having a newspaper route, trapping beaver and muskrat and picking beans, broccoli, gooseberries and strawberries during the summer to supplement family income (Keller’s dad was a logger) and purchase school clothes.
By all accounts, Tom Keller was a very aware and solid citizen who had empathy in spades and passion and determination to make the best out of his ability whether in sports or away from the competitive arena.
He was much loved and an inspiration even in his teen years.
“He was real value-based and always oriented so whatever he did, and he essentially did the right things for the right reasons,” says Larry Keller. “Whatever he would have done he would have done it very successfully. He had tremendous potential in him.”
Larry Keller tells of the time that his brother told him that if they did one push-up every day they would get to 100. Larry wasn’t much into it, but inspired by his older brother he agreed to try it. They started out at doing 30 each and, by god, they eventually got where they both could do 100 push-ups.
There was also the time that Tom Keller took care of the bully who was causing Larry problems. The bully was an athletic kid, but Larry said his brother quickly stopped it by going up to the kid and pushing him back while telling him to never monkey with his little brother again.
Problem solved.
Larry Keller’s dad passed away in 1995 at the age of 79, but his mother lives now not now far from the family home in Forest Grove in assisted living at the age of 98.
When he asked his mom how she and his dad handled Tom’s death, Keller said his mom replied,” I think about him every single day.”
Asked how she and his dad handled it together, she said, “We didn’t talk about it. We didn’t talk about it once.
But, his mother added, “I could hear him crying in the bathroom from time to time.”
Larry Keller said, “To never talk about it; isn’t that something? When somebody you lose that you love, you live with it. You don’t cry on everybody’s shoulder, but it doesn’t go away.”
There are a lot of ifs with a story like this – would Tom Keller had gone to the Air Force Academy, would he have had kids, but nobody really knows. All we know is the tremendous loss, the terrible pain, the family suffered and continue to feel.
When Tom Keller lay dying n the Seaside Hospital, his last words were not about him and how terrible it was for him.
No, it wasn’t.
“Poor mama, poor mama,” Tom Keller uttered.