Amherst, Rick Keller (George Richart Keller, Jr.) died on May 25 2017 after a yearlong struggle with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig Disease).

Rick attended The Meeting School in Rindge NH and graduated from Coburn Academy in Waterville ME.  He attended Wilmington College and graduated with a BA in music from Earlham College. He studied planning in the University of Rhode Island graduate school and was a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Rick was dedicated to public service in his work, non-profit service, and personal relationships. 

Rick took part in a Mass General Hospital ALS Clinical trial of gene blocking medicine and other ALS studies.

His work ranged from researching phenylketonuria at Mass General Hospital, to building pipe organs at Noack Organ Company; community planning in Newton MA and Warwick RI; and surveying land to develop residential and commercial projects in the Westport MA area and the Pioneer Valley.  He was a boat carpenter in Newport RI.

Groundbreaking and award winning work in Rhode Island and Massachusetts included helping establish the RI Solid Waste Management Corporation, and negotiations with Narragansett Electric for the first statewide municipal street lighting contract in Rhode Island.  He managed VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) programs in Massachusetts and Rhode Island that helped low income workers recover millions of dollars in earned income and child tax credits.

While working for Roy F. Weston, he managed an award-winning recycling program for the US Postal Service in New England and wrote solid waste and recycling plans for Vermont cities and towns.

Community work included serving on boards of the National Community Tax Coalition, The Cohousing Association of the US, Community Music Works and Providence RI Friends Meeting. He was a founding member of the Cohousing Research Network and the Partnership for Affordable Cohousing.

Rick helped the Wilderness Community to preserve 3000 acres of forest in Mount Holly and Plymouth VT.    

He helped research and write the first watershed protection ordinance in Rhode Island in the town of Middletown. 

Rick had a lifelong passion for music; playing piano, organ, guitar, banjo, cello, and recorder. He conducted choral and orchestral music as a student at Wilmington College and Earlham College.  He sang in the Earlham concert choir.

He performed in several folk and contra dance groups and played recorder with the Telemann Society.

He arranged songs and accompanied Nancy Hood on piano and recorder in performances of her multimedia show “I’ve Got a Song”, recounting her story as a child of the left in the McCarthy era.

Appalachian folk music recordings that Rick and his father collected are in the Smithsonian Institution. 

He learned to swim in his early forties and then swam two miles from Newport to Jamestown to benefit Save The Bay.  

Rick was the son of the late George R. Keller and Mildred Anderson Keller. He is survived by his wife, Janet Borkowski McHale Keller, sons Jeffrey and Peter Keller; daughter-in-law Meghan Cotter Keller and grandchildren Murphy, Emmett, and Sadie Keller.

Also, his niece, Rachel LaFollette Jones, her husband Ron, and their children Keegan and Makenna Jones; his stepchildren Shannon McHale and James McHale and their children Tab Kerby, Jordan and   James McHale, and his former wife, Judy Lepreau Keller.

Donations in his name to Community Music Works, 1392 Westminster St, Providence, RI 02909 will be appreciated. Community MusicWorks

communitymusicworks.org/

Interment will be at Vassalboro Friends Meeting in Vassalboro,  Maine

Information and condolences https://douglassfuneral.com/