By TAMMIE TOLER
Princeton Times
July 27, 2007 04:02 pm
—
PRINCETON — George Keatley set out to join the Air Force. When a sudden illness grounded the Speedway native, he went to the head of the class, where he built a 41-year legacy to education.
Keatley died Saturday at the age of 71.
This week, his friends, family and colleagues said farewell to the man who began his career in Elgood School and finished it in 1999 at the Mercer County Schools Central Office. They remembered a friend who almost always saw the positive side of any situation.
“I think people fondly remember George as being very upbeat, very positive,” School Superintendent Dr. Deborah Akers said. “Even until the very day he retired, he worked very hard.”
Born in March 1936, Keatley grew up between Athens and Pipestem and made plans to join the Air Force as soon as he graduated from high school. His father, John Lacy Keatley, reportedly stepped in and encouraged his son to seek higher education before going on to serve his country.
“My dad told me to go to college and then I could do what I wanted to,” Keatley told the Princeton Times in a 1999 interview.
Keeping close to home, Keatley enrolled at Concord College, where he completed bachelor of science degrees in both physical education and social studies.
After his graduation from Concord, Keatley did enlist in the Air Force, but a sudden illness would send him back to class. The day he was slated to start boot camp, his appendix ruptured, ending his Air Force career before it ever began
So, he turned back to education, taking a teaching job at Elgood School. From there, Keatley went to Glenwood Junior High School, where he served as a teacher and a coach before transferring to Athens School. There, he completed his master’s degree in administration.
In 1965, Keatley left Athens and headed to Princeton Senior High School, where he made his professional home for 26 years. The first two school terms, he was assistant principal. Then, in 1967, Keatley took the helm as principal, a post he held onto until the spring of 1994.
During that tenure, there were two assistant principals working with Keatley.
Don White dealt primarily with discipline, while Jim Strong focused on student attendance and truancy issues.
“When I was hired, in the interviewing process, we found out that Don White was left-handed. I was right handed, so I always had to be George’s right-hand man,” Strong recalled this week. “He protected himself all the way around.”
Whether his employees wrote with right or left hands, Strong said Keatley was always there to support the people who made the school system run.
“He was a team player. He supported you and allowed you to make decisions as an administrator. He loved the staff — cooks, custodians, secretaries, teachers. He just had a love of the public school system,” Strong said.
During his tenure at PSHS, the school won many honors, both academic and athletic. He also saw the school through a move from Johnston Street to its current site on Stafford Drive.
In a 1998 profile on Keatley, he told the Princeton Times one of the highlights of his career came in 1976.
“We were the first high school in the state to receive the Bellamy Award, which was given for both academic achievements and an all-around high school program. It was an outstanding honor for both the school and the community,” he said.
PSHS was the only school in the nation that year to garner the honor.
Keatley was one of the first people former Princeton Times news editor and Bluefield Daily Telegraph state editor Barbara Hawkins met when she moved to Princeton. In later years, Keatley would help Hawkins start the scholarship fund in honor of her daughter, Pam, who was killed in a domestic dispute with her ex-husband.
“He was one of the first members of the Pam Hawkins Foundation board. He helped us start the walk-a-thon, and helped us make it very successful,” Hawkins said, adding that she was always impressed with Keatley’s capacity to care for his students, staff and school.
“In my mind, he’s been an important part of the growth in the educational system in Princeton in the last 30 years,” she said.
In 1994, Keatley led PSHS through one of its most tumultuous events. He was principal the spring day a 15-year-old sophomore held his biology class hostage on the top floor of the Stafford Drive building. While the rest of the students and staff evacuated the building and waited outside for word on the situation, Keatley remained inside and was nearly struck when the teen fired a shot in his direction. He hit the wall beside Keatley nstead.
Eventually, two students inside the classroom tackled their captor and held him until authorities could take him into custody.
In the 1999 profile, Hawkins wrote that Keatley believed strongly classes should continue as normally as possible after the ordeal. PSHS students returned to class the very next day, but that biology class was temporarily relocated.
Spring 1994 proved to be Keatley’s last semester at PSHS. When school resumed in the fall, Keatley became assistant superintendent of schools.
There, he said he hoped to help students and citizens countywide.
“I like what I’m doing. I like to work with students, to see people improve and to get the school system as good as it can be. I've lived in Mercer County all of my life, and I want to see it as good as we can have it. I feel that I'm contributing to both through my work here,” he told the Times.
In 1999, Keatley decided it was time to leave his post in the school system. He made the move into retirement official Oct. 29, 1999, telling his community he hoped to make more time for the fun things in life, particularly golf, travel and comic book collecting.
But, he didn’t take much time to rest, as numerous civic and community organizations kept him busy.
He was a member of Painters Chapel United Methodist Church, Concord Masonic Lodge; Order of the Eastern Star; Sun Valley Ruritan; Phi Delta Kappa; Pipestem Foundation; PikeView Foundation, and Pine Tree Alumni chapter of Concord University. He had also been a part of the West Virginia North Central state committee; North Central team chairperson; past president of the West Virginia Secondary Schools’ Principals’ Commission; the National Secondary Principals’ Association; the Mercer County Secondary Schools’ Principals’ Association; West Virginia Secondary Schools’ Activities Commission; and more.
He was particularly dedicated to supporting Concord University alumni endeavors, serving as a charter member and officer on the Pine Trees Chapter, the local alumni organization.
Alumni Director Kati Whittaker said Keatley’s passing would leave a huge void in alumni activities.
“Mr. Keatley was of great value and assistance to Concord University. He was always willing to give of his time in order to support his alma mater. We appreciate all that he did for the community and the institution. He will be sorely missed by everyone at Concord,” she said.
— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.