University of Maine at Portland - Reflection / Umpire Yearbook (Portland, ME)

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DEDICATION

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NIVQERSITY m , .;,oF; 1,; MAIIN E j3P0RTLAND '. L , I I 5 Ir l..1 ; I .- -. 'l' Editor -,. . . . ;. . . . . - MARGARET THORNTON - IL , Student Publications Editor A-.;.-:-.'. .' , n . - ' ' ' FRANK TORDOFF Advertising Manager JOHN BURRELL Layout. IAMEE QUINN - T I UMPIRE 71965 25::03. ROGERS a

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Mr. John Herbert Keenan For twenty years Mr, Keenan has been identified with the developmem of our program in business administration, Hrs! at PIC, and then, after the merger with the University of Maine, at UMP. His 'sincere interest in every student and his skill in explaining the fundamentals of economics and accounting have done much in assuring the success of those who have studied in the business program. Born on May 6, 1899, in Virginia, Maine, a hamlet which is now part of the township of Rumford, Mr. Keenan started his Formal education in a one-room school in Wales, Maine. His father was weeds superintendent at the Brown Company, directing the timber operations of that company, first in one area- and then in another throughout northern New England. From the age of 15, John Keenan spent his school vacations working with the lumberrnen, usually assisting one of the surveyors. Mr. Keenan prepared for college at St. Michael's Academy, Winooski, Ver- mont, but World War 1 called him into the service for one year after he received his academy diploma. After his return to civilian Life he went on to Dartmouth, where he earned his A.B. degree in 1923. Another year of work in tall timber intervened before Mr. Keenan returned to Dartmouth, this time in the graduate program of the Tuck School of Business, from which he received the degree of Master of Commercial Science in 1925. Mr. Keenan then returned to the Brown Company to supervise a group of lumbering operations. The divisitm which he headed ran lumber drives down the Androseoggin from i-Veld Pond in Dixfield t0 the mills at Bumford. When the great depression came and lumbering operations were curtailed, Mr. Keenan was invited to help develop the CCC program in northern New Hampshire. I'Ie superintended CCC camps in Newport and Danbury, New Hampshire, until 1936, when he was appointed manager of the Forest Products Cooperative, which marketed pulp and lumber products for its members in northern New Hampshire and Vermont Mr. Keenan's work with the CCC program had, hawever, stimulated his interest in the education of young men. After two years of development of the Forest Products Cooperative, he decided to prepare himself for college-ievel teaching. He enrolled for graduate work at Columbia, specializing in economics and business administration, was awarded his MA. there in 1938, and returned to the CCC program as an educational adviser in New Hampshire until the program was terminated by World War II. The Second World War found Mr. Keenan adapting his knowledge of the handling of lumber to the handling of steel. Starting as a checker at the Broad- way Plate Yard of the South Portland Shipbuilding Corporation, Mr. Keenan rapidly won promotion until he was in charge of the truck transportation which moved sufheient steel into the fabricatitm areas so that a ship could be launched every five days during the height of the operation. V-j Day brought about the closing of the shipyard and the reopening of Portland Junior College. As soon as the Associate of Arts in Business Adminis- tration program was organized in the latter part of 1946, Mr. Keenan was chosen te teach economics and other business courses. His broad academic background, his wealth of experience in administration, and his understanding of young men, gained through his work with CCC trainees, all contributed to his success at PIC. After the University of Maine took over PIC in 1957, Mr. Keenan was made Assistant Professor of Economics. MI. Keenan has now reached the age of retirement, but he will be remembered with aiteetion and gratitude for years to come by all of the hundreds of students who have been privileged to beneEt by his teaching.