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Old 03-03-2008, 03:35 PM
shockwaveriderz shockwaveriderz is offline
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Red face Richard D. Keller still kickin @ 80!

TIMEPOINTS

12/57-1/58 "Skip" and Richard D. Keller (father and son) (NAR #4), become major investors in Model Missiles,Inc

7/59 7/30/59 G.Harry Stine loses control of MMI at a board meeting to Richard D. Keller.

Meet Richard Keller:

A lifetime of big, never-ending adventure By Kathryn Lucariello
Holiday Island News editor
Property owner Richard Keller celebrated his “80th trip around the sun” last month, but you wouldn’t know it. He sure doesn’t look 80, and he runs up and down stairs like a man in his 20s.Right now he’s involved in helping Jim Bakker – yes, the Jim Bakker – finish construction of his mammoth Morningside community in Blue Eye, Mo. But that’s only a small part of all the things Richard Keller has done in his life – a life of big adventure.Richard became self-employed as a pre-teen by selling The Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s magazines, and was the top young salesman.This financed his first movie camera and his first big goal: to attend the 1939 New York World’s Fair.At age 11, not only did he go to the World’s Fair from his home in San Antonio, Texas, but he went by himself on the train.“We had relatives and friends every step of the way,” he said. They put him up overnight. In total he was gone for more than a month.He says that trip set the stage for his whole life.“They presented ‘The World of Tomorrow.’ It was such an exciting concept.”He filmed his trip, both with his movie camera and a Brownie still camera, and still has his films and photos.Most everything he saw at the “World of Tomorrow” has come to pass.“Television, for one – that’s when they were introduced,” Richard said. “They even had telephones with vision scope so you could see who you were talking to.“The General Motors exhibit – the highways of the future – you would ride in these little chairs and see highways and little cars in model. Cloverleafs, planned cities with beautiful parks. The cars looked just like our cars today, sloped down in the front.”Richard said he could not think of anything that has not come true in some fashion, although back then they had no concept of computers and iPods.“The World’s Fair was on Long Island Sound, and itself was like a city of the future. To think they tore it all down and it became LaGuardia Airport,” he lamented.Richard has tried to go to as many World’s Fairs as he can. He went to the Chicago, St. Louis, Montreal, San Antonio, Seattle and Knoxville fairs.Richard was active in his teen years in a number of things, including as an ROTC officer at the Texas Military Institute. Fast forward to going into the Navy electronics training program at Galveston, Norfolk and Memphis Naval Air Stations, then to engineering college at the University of Colorado in Boulder.While there he climbed Longs, Evans and Pike’s peaks. Each one took a full day.“What a view you have up there,” Richard said. “It gives you a whole new perspective.”Midway through college he was called up for the Korean War and served as an aircraft electronics and radar systems division officer in Hawaii for two years.He surfed at Waikiki and flew over and photographed the Kilauea volcano and other sights.While in Hawaii he was on “The $64 Question” and Art Linkletter’s “People Are Funny” radio shows. He got to meet Arthur Godfrey, Louie (“Satchmo”) Armstrong, Frankie Lane, Patti Page and John Wayne at the officers’ clubs.Louie Armstrong: “I remember Satchmo. He always had that big smile. He’d always sweat up a storm. He was such a friendly guy.”Art Linkletter: “I was in my uniform and he had me come up on stage. He had a mannequin girl and he gave me all the clothes – brassiere, panties, and had me dress her blindfolded. That was on radio!”“The $64 Question” was rigged, he said.“They wanted the serviceman to win, you know. It was on radio, so he could give me hints with his face. Unfortunately it wasn’t the $64,000 question!”After the war, Richard returned to college in Boulder and graduated with dual degrees in electronics engineering and business administration.General Electric was hot to pick him up out of school, but he wanted to see more of the world. So he made a deal with them to start work after he took a trip to Europe.Richard hopped a cattle boat and fed cattle all the way to Europe. He went to the European and British music festivals that summer and made movies of them. He saw the opera “Aida” at the outdoor theater in Rome.“They were tremendous experiences,” he said.

Richard said G. Harry Stine was his roommate in college. Stine was a graduate in physics who went to work at White Sands, and he was into model rockets as a hobby.Stine became one of the top 50 pioneers of the space age, and he was honored with a silver medal by the U.S. Army Association.Richard said he and Stine formed a company, Model Missiles, Inc., to produce rocket motors and Richard was its president in Denver.

Later Richard went to work for Martin Marietta and worked on ICBMs.“I was the key engineer on the launch of one of the big missiles placed to launch spy satellites,” he said. “It was such a sense of elation after the weeks and months of details, every little thing to pay attention to. It’s a tremendous sense of achievement.”Following that work, he worked on the initial huge missile silos in Colorado, Wyoming and California.“I worked on Titan I,” he said. “It took us almost two years to complete them, and within a year of completion they were obsolete. With Titan II the response time was faster. They had to build new silos for Titan II.”His closest call working on these huge missiles was not from the missile itself but from the political situation, he said.“I was in Chico, California, and that was when the Cuban missile crisis was going on, and we were so close to launching nuclear war. Our spy cameras saw the Russians bringing their missiles to Cuba.”But the Russians backed off, and so did the U.S.Richard moved to the Eureka Springs area in the early 1970s after his parents came through on a trip.He started working in Holiday Island for McCullogh Corporation as a real estate agent.“The Passion Play was really just getting started strong then, and we knew there was going to be a lot of tourists,” he said.Richard ended up playing Pontius Pilate in the play.“Mr. Smith (as in Gerald L.K. Smith) was bemoaning the fact the motels were charging too much, so I thought I could build something that wouldn’t be too expensive for people.”He built Keller’s Dorms on Hwy. 62 and ran it for 32 years.Was Gerald L.K. Smith a Nazi, as he has been accused?“Of course,” Keller said. “He was an intense patriot, and I think he saw the Jewish influence in finance causing problems. He opposed Roosevelt bringing them in.“Gerald L.K. was one of the great orators. He really had a lot to say and knew how to present it. I was always fascinated with him. But I never thought about people being born in any race as evil, and I  didn’t go along with it. Although I didn’t go along with all the extreme views, I admire what he accomplished. He brought Eureka back to life. I was glad to be a part of that and help that go along. That was why I built the resort.”Richard’s latest venture is working with Jim Bakker on the Morningside community in Blue Eye.The community features 120 condominiums, two 8-plex apartment buildings, a television studio and an indoor mall-like setting with shops and a chapel. The design is Bakker’s and is based on the concept of a French village, with little sidewalk cafés.“My wife and I got curious. We’d heard about Jim Bakker and had been going to shows in Branson,” Richard said. “I’m volunteering to help wherever they need it. I do a little bit of everything.”What about Bakker’s past, his imprisonment for fraud?“When he was back on TV I was skeptical at first,” Richard said. “I read his book (“I Was Wrong”) and saw him from an entirely different light.“The guy has a heart of gold. He’s extremely intelligent and brings out the best in everyone who works with him. I see an emergent, restored Jim Bakker. The completion of Morningside will really see him be a major influence in the world. Jim is a deep- hearted man. He really has a great feeling for the people here.”For now, Richard is content to work on helping Bakker realize this dream. The television studio has already opened and Bakker has begun broadcasting.Given Richard’s zest for life, who knows what will happen next? Age seems to be no barrier. What’s the secret to his longevity and vitality?“I’ve tried to live with things that are positive and healthy,” he says. “I tried to avoid things that lead to disease. I never got into smoking, alcohol or drugs. I don’t drink colas.“Eating right is one aspect (he follows the diet outlined in the Bible), but exercise is another big difference.”He exercises at the Berryville Community Center – uses the weights, swims, walks on the track and plays ping-pong. He also exercises every morning before breakfast.In addition to that, attitude plays a huge role.“It’s a big, wide wonderful world. I want to see as much of it and take part in it as I can,” Richard said.
Article reprinted with permission of Carroll County Newspapers.

Hope you enjoyed this.

terry dean
NAR 16158
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Last edited by shockwaveriderz : 03-05-2008 at 08:17 PM.
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  #2  
Old 03-03-2008, 03:46 PM
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Geez can we get him to the Old Rocketeer reunion to give his insight on the early days of MMI?
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Old 03-03-2008, 05:19 PM
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On one of his visits to Enertek, G. Harry brought Keller with him.

I think I shook his hand. The two of them only stopped briefly in the R&D department as they were going in to a meeting with Lee Piester.

Bob
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Old 03-06-2008, 12:32 PM
shockwaveriderz shockwaveriderz is offline
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Red face

IF anybody has any specific questions that they might like to ask Mr. Keller, I will be conducting an telephone interview with him .

Based upon the article that I posted, it seems the Mr. Keller left the running of MMI to his mom and dad, and he went to work on Titan's 1 &2, which of course were being made at the Glenn L. Martin (the Martin Company, now known as Lockheed Martin) plant established in 1955 in the foothills to the southwst of Denver, Co.

This Martin Titan Plant drew alot of former rocketeers to Colorado, G. Harry Stine of course who was fired the day after Sputnik-1 was launched; John Rahkonen of ProDyne worked there before moving and working at Thiokol in Utah. And now we know that Richard D. Keller also worked there.

I was going to ask Mr. Keer about the July 1959 Board meeting in which G. Harry lost control; ask him to provide more detail about his MMI days; ask him why MMI under the Keller leadership never came out with any new products.

Mr. Keller may have also been an "investor" of Enertek the 80's.

So this is your chance to ask a really old rocketeer from the very old days what he was doing and such.

terry dean
nar 16158
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Old 03-08-2008, 01:38 PM
Initiator001 Initiator001 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shockwaveriderz
Mr. Keller may have also been an "investor" of Enertek the 80's.

terry dean
nar 16158


I don't think Keller was ever an investor in Enertek.

G. Harry just brought him by the shop one day 'hoping' to get Keller interested in investing in Enertek.

Bob
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Old 05-08-2008, 09:48 PM
shockwaveriderz shockwaveriderz is offline
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I had the opportunity and pleasure today to speak with Richard Keller today for about 2 hrs. He's going to send me a bunch of photos from his days at MMI. I can't wait.

The man is 80 and his mind is as sharp as a man half his age!.

He had nothing but good things to say about his days at MMI with G. Harry Stine.

terry dean
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Old 05-08-2008, 10:01 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shockwaveriderz
I had the opportunity and pleasure today to speak with Richard Keller today for about 2 hrs. He's going to send me a bunch of photos from his days at MMI. I can't wait.

The man is 80 and his mind is as sharp as a man half his age!.

He had nothing but good things to say about his days at MMI with G. Harry Stine.

terry dean



Most guys I know that are 80 are still as sharp as a 40 year old. It's those next ten years that seem to take their toll.

Roy
(whose grandma died at 97 with a complete, sharp mind and no body left)
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Old 05-08-2008, 11:12 PM
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Terry,

What a great find, and thanks for sharing it with us.

I'm really curious, how on earth did you track him down?
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Old 05-09-2008, 05:48 AM
shockwaveriderz shockwaveriderz is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gus
Terry,

What a great find, and thanks for sharing it with us.

I'm really curious, how on earth did you track him down?



Gus, the lady that wrote the article I posted above earlier did a Google on Richard Keller's name for background research which just so happened to be in my Early Model Rocket Timeline.

So she contacted me and asked me if I had any additional information, which I didn't really.

So after she published her story I simply asked her to contact Mr. Keller for me, which she did and he gave her permission for me to contact him by providing his phone numbers.

I had put it on the back burner here for a couple months and last night I had some free time, so I just up and called him out of yhe blue, and he wasn't business so we talked for 2 hrs about his MMI days with G. Harry; his college days with G. Harry,etc

I dodn't know if you or anybody else has read G.Harry Stine's 1976 memoir recently posted over at the Quest Virtual Model Rocket Museum, but if you have G. Harry Stine mentions Riochard/Dick Keller in several instances.

Using my time line as a guide and the Stine memoir's we took a stroll down memory lane so to speak.

this interview hopefully will become the basis of a published interview to fill in some of the holes in the history of MMI. I'm really loking forward to seeing what kinda old pjotos he has from his MMI days.

One thing I will tel you is he related a story about him and G. Harry being roommates at the University of Colorado and they lived off campus in this small old house that was heated by a coal fired syove in the basement. When I was a kid in the early 60's I lived in such a small house in Etown. KY that was heated by such a coal fired stove.

Richard reminisce that G. Harry would stay up all hours of the night, typing out stories and plays for the campus radio show.

Also in the very late 60's-very early 70's Richard worked for IBM here in Louisville,Ky; at that time of course, was the time period that I first was in model rocketry! And Mr. Keller was just up the road from where I lived at the time.

As a quick aside, Mary Roberts lived in Etown,KY during this same time period when her hubbie was stationed out at Ft.Knox,Ky

And he then goes on to tell the story of the day in Denver, when they setup to perform a demonstartion of the MMI rockets and motors before the full glare of every TV station camera in town at that time, who had been invited to the demo , and the Brown Mfg/Zenith Fireworks rocket motors resulted in so many cato's that Denver banned model rockets from being sold. They could be made there; but they couldn't be sold!

This little episode of course is what led G. Harry Stine to look for an alternative motor maker and supplier,. I think we all know the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say.

So these are just some of the little historical tidbits that he related to me. There's bunch's more. I was so glad to find him in excellent mental shape. I've talked to Menford Sutton ansd at 84, well he's forgotten alot that hapened over time, as Coaster was only 5 years of his life. We may think of it as a big deal, but in the overall scheme of the man's life, it was just a blip in his life that in hindsight wasn';t all that importnat to him.

I also talk to 76 yr old John Rahkonen of Prodyne and his mind is still sharp too, But I've also talked to Howard Kuhn of CMR and he's virtually deaf and in poor health so it was difficult to communicate with him.

I feel that I am a pretty lucky person to have been able to talk to these people, and I don't really understand why nobody before me seemed to bother to do so.

Perhaps I am just a little more dedicated to the task of trying to document their oral histories before they pass on. I would have given anything to have spoken with G. Harry Stine of course. I have spoken at length with his wife Barbara, "Barbie" as G. Harry called her.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but when i start talking model rocketry history I can't seem to stop, because its my passion.

terry dean
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Old 05-09-2008, 10:13 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shockwaveriderz
Gus, the lady that wrote the article I posted above earlier did a Google on Richard Keller's name for background research which just so happened to be in my Early Model Rocket Timeline.

So she contacted me and asked me if I had any additional information, which I didn't really.

So after she published her story I simply asked her to contact Mr. Keller for me, which she did and he gave her permission for me to contact him by providing his phone numbers.

I had put it on the back burner here for a couple months and last night I had some free time, so I just up and called him out of yhe blue, and he wasn't business so we talked for 2 hrs about his MMI days with G. Harry; his college days with G. Harry,etc

I dodn't know if you or anybody else has read G.Harry Stine's 1976 memoir recently posted over at the Quest Virtual Model Rocket Museum, but if you have G. Harry Stine mentions Riochard/Dick Keller in several instances.

Using my time line as a guide and the Stine memoir's we took a stroll down memory lane so to speak.

this interview hopefully will become the basis of a published interview to fill in some of the holes in the history of MMI. I'm really loking forward to seeing what kinda old pjotos he has from his MMI days.

One thing I will tel you is he related a story about him and G. Harry being roommates at the University of Colorado and they lived off campus in this small old house that was heated by a coal fired syove in the basement. When I was a kid in the early 60's I lived in such a small house in Etown. KY that was heated by such a coal fired stove.

Richard reminisce that G. Harry would stay up all hours of the night, typing out stories and plays for the campus radio show.

Also in the very late 60's-very early 70's Richard worked for IBM here in Louisville,Ky; at that time of course, was the time period that I first was in model rocketry! And Mr. Keller was just up the road from where I lived at the time.

As a quick aside, Mary Roberts lived in Etown,KY during this same time period when her hubbie was stationed out at Ft.Knox,Ky

And he then goes on to tell the story of the day in Denver, when they setup to perform a demonstartion of the MMI rockets and motors before the full glare of every TV station camera in town at that time, who had been invited to the demo , and the Brown Mfg/Zenith Fireworks rocket motors resulted in so many cato's that Denver banned model rockets from being sold. They could be made there; but they couldn't be sold!

This little episode of course is what led G. Harry Stine to look for an alternative motor maker and supplier,. I think we all know the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say.

So these are just some of the little historical tidbits that he related to me. There's bunch's more. I was so glad to find him in excellent mental shape. I've talked to Menford Sutton ansd at 84, well he's forgotten alot that hapened over time, as Coaster was only 5 years of his life. We may think of it as a big deal, but in the overall scheme of the man's life, it was just a blip in his life that in hindsight wasn';t all that importnat to him.

I also talk to 76 yr old John Rahkonen of Prodyne and his mind is still sharp too, But I've also talked to Howard Kuhn of CMR and he's virtually deaf and in poor health so it was difficult to communicate with him.

I feel that I am a pretty lucky person to have been able to talk to these people, and I don't really understand why nobody before me seemed to bother to do so.

Perhaps I am just a little more dedicated to the task of trying to document their oral histories before they pass on. I would have given anything to have spoken with G. Harry Stine of course. I have spoken at length with his wife Barbara, "Barbie" as G. Harry called her.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but when i start talking model rocketry history I can't seem to stop, because its my passion.

terry dean



So, when is the book coming out?
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