03/07/2025
Rest in Power Mr. Keller
Paul Joseph Keller Obituary
Born in Lock Haven, Pa., on Jan. 12, 1939, the son of the late Rev. Paul J. Keller and Luella W. (Keller) Bice. He was also preceded in death by his stepfather, Blair M. Bice. He is survived by siblings Mary Lou (Mrs. Dean) Hinish, sister, of Elizabethtown, Pa.; stepbrothers Blair B. Bice (Alexandria, La.); Charles Bice (Saxonburn, Pa.) and Richard Bice (Martinsburg, Pa.) and their families; and Suzanne Good (Mrs. Don), niece and family, of Elizabethtown, Pa; Additional survivors are cousins, Jack and Trudy Meyer (Placerville, Calif.) and their families.
Joseph was a graduate of Morrison Cove High School in Martinsburg, Pa. (1956), the Lock Haven State Teachers College (1960) and Bucknell University (1968). He did additional graduate studies at the University of Virginia, Bloomsburg University and Penn State University.
At the time of his death, he was retired from teaching biology at Lewisburg Area High School (1960-1990) where, along with the late Luke Smeltz, he was instrumental in developing a lab-oriented biology program. He also worked as a lab instructor at Susquehanna University during the period of 1991-1999 and an instructor in Teaching of Biology at Bucknell University in the early 1960s. Volunteering with the late Linda Dodd, he started the annual Spring musicals at Lewisburg High School and worked along with Mrs. Dodd and Rudy A. Mummey in the early years of the Lewisburg Summer Theatre. He was a stage manager and a cast member in a professional summer theater for three summers in the early 1960s. He was also a member of the first Lewisburg Council on the Arts and assisted in coordinating both the first Lewisburg Arts Festival and the Victorian Christmas Parade. Also, during his teaching career, he was active a Christ's Evangelical Lutheran Church in both its music and education programs, its church council, and on its social ministry committee.
Since his retirement, he devoted much of his time to volunteering in the Lewisburg community. At the time of his death, he was still active at Christ's Evangelical Lutheran Church and was also a member of PASR and had served as secretary of the local chapter for several years. He enjoyed presenting sing-along programs at area nursing-care facilities and found pleasure in driving family and friends to and from several east coast airports. His other volunteer activities included helping on the Lewisburg/Milton Meals on Wheels program and on "Geoff's Road Crew" and he especially enjoyed his 14 years with the staff of the Evangelical Community Hospital Emergency Room and, later, with the employees of the Susquehanna River Valley Visitors Bureau. His pastimes included reading, the Broadway theater, and walking and he was frequently seen on his daily walks around Lewisburg. He sang Tenor with the River Valley Quartet for 20 years and treasured his friendships with Rudy, Maddie and other faculty members from the years he was in the Lewisburg Area School District as well as with Terrie and Smoke, the Craig Jarrett family and Wayne and Sharon Stump.
In lieu of flowers, Joe requested that any memorial gifts be made to either Christ's Evangelical Lutheran Church (100 South 3rd St., Lewisburg, Pa., 17837) or to the Green Dragon Foundation/P. Joseph Keller Endowment (115 Farley Circle, Suite 306, Lewisburg, Pa., 17837).
Funeral Services will be private.
Burial: Fairview Cemetery Martinsburg, Pa.
Arrangements by John H. Shaw III Funeral Home, Lewisburg.
