Barbara Keller

Barbara (Bobby) Keller of Leesburg, Virginia, formerly of Manhasset and Westhampton Beach, died peacefully on December 22, 2014, after a courageous battle against lymphoma. She was 83.
Mrs. Keller was predeceased by her beloved husband of 61 years, Donal E. Keller, DDS. Her survivors include her three children and their spouses: Dr. Andrew Keller (Gillian), Jane Gordon (Lawrence), and Marjorie Powers (Alan); five grandchildren: Emma Keller, Benjamin Keller, Hailey Gordon, Bradley Gordon, and Matthew Powers; nephew, Michael Glaubman; niece, SueEllen Ebertz; and many friends.
Born in New York to the late Ruth and Dr. Samuel Feuer, she was a graduate of Adelphi Academy (Brooklyn), Hood College, (Frederick, Maryland), and held a master’s degree from C.W. Post College (New York). For at least twenty years she was a public relations administrator, community representative, and continuing education director for the Manhasset Public Schools, following which she served as community services administrator for the Herricks Public Schools. Her final professional services position was Executive Director of the Suffolk Coalition to Prevent Drug and Alcohol Abuse (Hauppauge, New York). She was also the founder and inspirational force behind the non-profit Cancer Can’t Get Me.
Donald E. Harkness, Superintendent of the Manhasset Public Schools, who worked closely with her during her long period of service at Manhasset, had only words of praise for her as community services chairperson, public relations coordinator, and adult education director. He wrote: “She was a brilliant communicator, who was uniquely capable of conveying in a few insightful but pithy sentences the spirit and purpose of an educational enterprise of great promise and value. Some of Manhasset’s
most innovative and valuable educational initiatives (e.g., housing and educating severely handicapped
and vulnerable Manhasset children at our schools instead of busing
them to BOCES schools located two and a half hours removed from Manhasset, and her special success in establishing an effective interracial public relations network at a time of major tension between whites and blacks living within the community) took place while she was communications director, and she masterfully captured their essence, educational value, and uniqueness. She also championed the innovative and intellectually challenging programs for able students that were being developed and promoted at the same time.
But her greatest gifts, in my judgment, were her rare skills in human relations, her ability to achieve agreement from people of highly divergent interests as reflected
in her genius for orchestrating a truly creative educational and
social event, for example, and make it look spontaneous and natural.
Few could match that talent.
At no time in my experience—and
I was there for a total of over
35 years—was the district’s social and educational imperatives
handled with greater ability and grace than when she was at the social helm.”
Submitted By Don Harkness