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Charles (Chuck) Keller |
He is the reason I am able to write this story. My husband calls him the “best teacher
he never actually had”. Many of
his other 4,000 students call him “Uncle Keller”. But I guarantee you, every single one of them
remembers him and if all were to comment on this article, the stories with
which we’d be regaled would fill more pages than have been written at Walden
Pond (Thoreau is, as a matter of fact, his favorite). The man preceding the myth is, of course, Charles (Chuck)
Keller- soon-to-be retired English Department Head and long-term teacher at
Highlands High School.
Allow me to break decorum and refer to him throughout this
story by his first name, Chuck, rather than the more formal journalistic
last-name approach, my reason being that I consider him not only a mentor but a
friend and inspiration. Chuck
began his teaching career 34 years ago working at Great Oaks Vocation
School. After two years there he
switched to St. Henry High School.
Upon moving to Fort Thomas in 1988, he began his teaching career at
Highlands High School where he would spend the next twenty-seven years until he
recently decided to retire at the end of the 2013-2014 school year. And to think, had he held out a short 16
more years my children could have experienced the pleasure of taking a class
with Chuck.
And a pleasure it was.
I had Mr. Keller my junior year; I came to his class as one who never
seemed to enjoy school. Math was
my nemesis but English was a close second. He, more than any other teacher, was able to ignite in me
that spark for lifelong learning that so many strive to achieve but so few
actually do. As unique an
experience as that was for me, this was the effect he had on the majority of
his 4,000 students. Being the
deferential man that he is, Chuck gives some of his credit for success to the
students at Highlands, calling them (us) “different” in our thirst for
knowledge.
Though I would say it is due to years of Chuck’s planning
and preparation for his teaching career.
Chuck decided in the 9th grade that he wanted to be an
English teacher. Therefore, at age
14, he set out to accomplish that goal.
He attended Thomas More College and then Northern Kentucky University
for his Master’s degree. The
decision to attend NKU was purely financial as his GRE was “Harvard-worthy”,
per a joking Keller. At which
point, Mary Lou laughed.
If you know Chuck, you know Mary Lou. Mary Lou, his wife, has stood by him
through all of his years of teaching.
She laughed through the happy times with him such as when he told me the
story of buying pants. He wore a
brand new pair of slacks to school one day only to discover a hole in the front
of them in a most inconvenient place.
He said he had to carry a book in front of his mid-section the entire
day!
Mary Lou howled like a member of Chuck’s band, Barney and
the Howlers. Chuck plays guitar
and provides the vocals for this Jefferson Airplane-esque band (http://barneyandthehowlers.com/). Mary Lou is also one of the two
defining characteristics of what makes a good life, per Chuck’s personal
philosophy: “The two things that shape you as a person are 1) With whom you
choose to share your life; and 2) what you decide to do”. Mary Lou is the former, teaching the latter.
However, limiting the “whom” to Mary Lou would be a travesty
as Chuck shared so much of himself with so many of us. When asked how many Christmas cards he
receives yearly, the response was a sideways look to Mary Lou and a smile. When asked about the reach of his
teaching, he recounts a time when he randomly ran into someone who knew a
former student of his whilst hiking in Seattle, WA. He has attended birthday parties, Christenings, played at students’
weddings, and even officiated them.
However, of all the things he has accomplished and all the
lives he has touched, one of the neatest, according to Chuck, is watching a
former student come full circle.
“When you get to hire your former student and watch him now teach in the
classroom next to you, that is really something”.
During retirement, Chuck will continue to play in his band
given that music to him is “an addiction”. He has not ruled out the possibility of teaching more in
various capacities but he is looking forward to retiring. Trust me and his 4,000 other students
when we say that he has most certainly earned it.
What better way to end this article than with a quote from
Henry David Thoreau from Walden: “Could a greater miracle take place than for
us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?” Charles Chuck Keller taught we 4,000 students to see
through his eyes, each other’s eyes, and the eyes of many an author.
I can only hope in reading this article, he can see through
my eyes to see how he looks to me.
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Kellers third period class |
My son is in Mr. Keller's class this year and he also thinks he is a great teacher.
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