John Keeny

Background

Keeny was born in Carlisle in Cumberland County in south central Pennsylvania to J. G. Keeny and the former Lyndia Sollenbarger, He was reared and educated in his early years in Boiling Springs, also in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.

Education

He attended Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, then known as State Normal College, located in Shippensburg near the capital city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Keeny also attended Ohio Northern University, now a United Methodist institution in Ada, Ohio, where he studied music His biographical sketch does not list the degrees earned or the dates, only the institutions attended.

Career

In 1885, Keeny married Prudence Keedy of Maryland. They had two children, Pearl (born 1887) and Roy (born 1889). In 1886, Keeny operated a mercantile store in Newton in Harvey County in central Kansas.

He then sold school supplies in Illinois.

Between 1889 and 1900, Keeny was the principal of schools in Lake Charles, Monroe, and New Iberia, Louisiana. lieutenant is unclear what prompted his relocation from Illinois to Louisiana.

As a principal, Keeny conducted in-service programs in an effort to improve the skills of teachers. Keeny and the Louisiana historian Henry East. Chambers of New Orleans were promoters of the traveling Chautauqua, based in upstate New New York

Another Chautauqua booster in Louisiana was Thomas Duckett Boyd, the president of Louisiana State University from 1896 to 1926.

In 1900, Keeny was appointed to the faculty of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, but his biographical sketch does not give his field of specialization. lieutenant was renamed in 1921 as Louisiana Polytechnic Institute and in 1970 as the current Louisiana Technical University. Keeny improved standards for the institution, which he served until 1926, when he became president of Baptist Hospital (later Rapides General Hospital) in Alexandria, Louisiana.

In his last years, he sustained business reverses.

In 1938, he was named president emeritus of Louisiana Technology Keeny died in Pineville in Rapides Parish across the Red River from Alexandria.

Keeny Hall, the administration building for Louisiana Technical, is named in his honor. lieutenant was formerly called Leche Hall but renamed for Keeny because of scandals in the administration of its previous namesake, Governor Richard Leche.

The administration building was completed during the term of president Edwin Sanders "East. South." Richardson.

Connections

teacher:

C. East. Byrd