Michael A. O’Keeffe ’60

Michael A. O’Keeffe ’60 passed away peacefully on July 22 at his home in Madison, Wisconsin. Michael was born on January 9, 1938, in Boston to Bernard and Grace O’Keeffe. He graduated from the Roxbury Latin School and attended Dartmouth, where he was vice president of the boxing club. After graduating in 1960 he was commissioned in the Army and received training in Hawk missile systems at Fort Bliss, Texas. He was stationed in Wurzburg, West Germany, where he married Emlen Jones in 1962. They were happily married for more than 50 years. After completing his military service, Michael studied at the American Institute for Foreign Trade in Arizona and graduated with an M.B.A. He then worked for the U.S. Department of Defense, specifically the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The DIA sent him to the Panama Canal Zone, where, fluent in Spanish, he used his linguistic and cultural expertise very effectively. In later years Michael was the operations manager for a commercial vegetable operation in Culiacan, Mexico, and for a cattle ranch and sod farm in Florida. He and his family lived in Mazatlan, Mexico, and Englewood, Florida, during these periods. He never truly retired. He moved to Madison, where he worked for the Wisconsin Air National Guard and as an instructor in the M.B.A. program at Edgewood College. He is survived by sons Michael and Gerald, five grandchildren, and brother William.