And here's another obituary, this one from
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:-------------- • -------------- • --------------
ATLANTAOliver James Keller, 84, followed Lincoln's steps as justice advocateBy DREW JUBERA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/17/08Oliver James Keller Jr., "definitely a Union man" in the words of a fellow Civil War buff, devoted much of his time and wide-ranging intellect to preserving Georgia battle sites.
"He had a strong belief in the justice of the Northern cause," said Henry Howell, a member of the Georgia Battlefields Association, of which Mr. Keller was a founder. "His greatest hero was Abraham Lincoln, and some are not surprised he departed this world on Lincoln's birthday. He admired Lincoln's sense of justice."
Mr. Keller died Feb. 12 at age 84 from heart failure. He broke a hip in January when he fell while attending a meeting of the Atlanta Civil War Round Table. That night's topic: Lincoln.
Yet Mr. Keller's sense of justice went far beyond Civil War history. He was a powerful advocate for issues related to juvenile offenders, as well as affordable housing.
He was a founder of the Georgia Wilderness Institute, a nonprofit organization that provides alternatives to incarceration for young offenders. In 1973, he was appointed Florida's secretary of Health and Rehabilitative Services.
"Our country is very shortsighted when dealing with juvenile offenders," Mr. Keller wrote in a letter to
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1999. He'd moved to Atlanta after President Carter appointed him to the U.S. Parole Commission.
"Instead of spending tax dollars for prevention and alternative punishments, we ignore the danger signs until a crime has occurred," Mr. Keller continued. "Prevention programs work."
At 6 feet 4 inches tall, with a stentorian voice, Mr. Keller was at once a commanding and personable presence. Raised in Pittsburgh, where his father was editor of the
Post-Gazette, Mr. Keller visited Gettysburg as a teenager and it "just blew his mind," said his wife of 56 years, Joan Dixon Keller. He later memorized the Gettysburg Address and kept a copy over his desk.
"He believed that you understand what happened at a site better if you can actually see the ground," said Charles Crawford, president of the Georgia Battlefields Association. "He believed it makes you a better citizen if you understand your own history."
His own wartime experiences came during two stints in the Navy.
He was navigator of an LST carrier in the Pacific during World War II and the Korean War.
His bachelor's degree from Williams College was completed between those wars.
Mr. Keller then worked at a Springfield, Ill., radio station his father bought. He became a disc jockey, among other duties, and was known on-air as "OJ the DJ."
He helped troubled teens who came by, many of them listeners, and founded a residential facility for at-risk kids. The governor appointed him chairman of the Illinois Youth Commission.
Among his other passions: jazz piano and 1939 Cadillacs. "He was never greatly skilled," his wife allowed, "but he got pleasure playing one great song after another."
Mr. Keller is also survived by daughters Alison Townsend of Barrington, R.I., and Louisa Paige of Boston; a brother, Daniel Keller, of Davis, Calif., and six grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held Feb. 25 at 11 a.m. at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 435 Peachtree St., N.E., Atlanta.
© 2010 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution