Peter Charles Keller – charismatic adventurer, relentless collector, museum visionary, loyal buddy, loving husband, brother, father, and grandfather – handed away immediately on November 8, 2022. Peter’s 75 years have been marked by his ardour for experiencing all that the world has to supply, with shut family and friends by his facet.

A Mischievous Little one

Peter was born on August 16, 1947 to Barbara (Miller) Keller and C. Donald Keller in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Rising up on Saint Cloud Road together with his youthful sister, Patricia, Peter was a mischievous youngster – an Eddie Haskell-type who was charming and will do no improper in his mom’s eyes, but in addition liked exploding cherry bombs and pulling pranks. Peter was interested in nature and the world from an early age. At six, he found a quartz crystal in his gravel driveway after a rainstorm that led to a lifelong love of geology and amassing. He was the youngest member of the Society for American Archeology on the age of 8. He spent weekends searching arrowheads within the farms and fields of Lehigh County together with his father.

At the same time as a younger boy Peter exhibited management qualities. He was an energetic member of the Boy Scouts of America and, when he was 16, attained the best rank of Eagle Scout and in the end grew to become the President of his put up. At this identical time, Peter was elected to the Govt Board of the Scholar Council at William Allen Excessive College, from which he graduated in June 1965.

Changing into Peter Keller

After attending Penn State for a short time, Peter volunteered for the USA Air Pressure in 1967, in the course of the top of the Vietnam Conflict. An Air Pressure sergeant, Peter served as an intelligence analyst in Da Nang, Vietnam, in 1968-1969, and later within the Philippines and Washington, DC. After his service, Peter graduated from The George Washington College, the place he majored in Geology. Throughout his undergraduate research, Peter interned on the Smithsonian, providing to scrub home windows in change for the chance to work on the prestigious establishment. Peter usually spoke of the Smithsonian cocktail social gathering that modified his life: charming as ever, he launched himself to the top of the Geology Division on the College of Texas, Austin, who in the end paved the best way for Peter to attend graduate faculty there. Peter earned his Grasp’s Diploma in Geology and Earth Science at U.T. Austin in 1974 and his Ph.D. in Geology and Earth Science in 1977. Whereas researching his doctoral thesis on geodes of the Chihuahua Desert, Peter discovered considered one of his favourite jokes: spoken in his characteristically horrible Spanish, Peter requested “Como estan tus frijoles, cabrito?” which he roughly translated to “The way you bean, child?” Ha!

After graduate faculty, Peter moved from Texas to Southern California and commenced a profession that may culminate in changing into a number one determine in California’s arts and tradition. Peter’s first place as a newly-minted geologist was as Curator of the Gem & Mineral Corridor on the Pure Historical past Museum of Los Angeles County. There he collaborated intently with Don and Hisae Dickey and Wayne and Dona Leicht, fellow mineral lovers who grew to become lifelong buddies. After leaving the Pure Historical past Museum within the late Nineteen Seventies, Peter joined the Gemological Institute of America as Director of Schooling. His then spouse, Alice, joined him at GIA and in the end spent her profession as Editor-in-Chief of GIA’s scientific journal, Gems & Gemology.

Peter later returned to the Pure Historical past Museum as Affiliate Director for Packages. It is throughout this second stint at Pure Historical past that Peter found his ardour for creating landmark displays. A number of the displays that he was most happy with included the creation of the Discovery Heart for kids (he enlisted his oldest daughter, Elizabeth, as marketing consultant to verify it was enjoyable), an exhibit of Gary Larson’s Far Aspect comics, and dealing with Richard Feynman and Ralph Leighton to convey the mysterious world of Tuva to Los Angeles. Peter’s exhausting work on the latter exhibit is memorialized in Feynman’s e book on his Tuvan journey, Tuva or Bust!, in a chapter titled “The Keller Accord.” Round this time, Peter additionally wrote and printed his personal books: Gem stones and Their Origins (1990) and Gem stones of East Africa (1992).

Main the Bowers Museum

In April 1991, Peter assumed the put up that may cement his legacy as a museum visionary and which might convey him immense pleasure: President and CEO of the Bowers Museum of Cultural Artwork in Santa Ana, California. Inside just a few years, Peter vastly expanded the bodily, geographic, and cultural footprint of the museum, bringing in unprecedented and impressive displays and overseeing the development of latest galleries. In 1994, using his son Bret’s imaginative and prescient of a museum the place children might work together with the artifacts within the displays, Peter opened Kidseum, the Bowers’ kids’s museum. In 2007 he once more expanded the museum by opening the Dorothy and Donald Kennedy Wing to satisfy the wants of a rising group and viewers.

Over his three a long time as President and CEO, the Bowers showcased over 160 exhibitions. A number of the displays of which he was most proud have been the Secrets and techniques of the Silk Street, Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor, Secret World of the Forbidden Metropolis, Tibet: Treasures from the Roof of the World, and Mummies: Loss of life and the Afterlife in Historic Egypt . . . Treasures from the British Museum, all of which included uncommon and priceless artifacts that had by no means earlier than been to the USA. Whereas the displays spoke for themselves, most important to Peter have been the numerous relationships he cast on the Bowers. Peter was beloved by his workers – a lot of whom labored with him for many years – and by the many individuals who liked this small museum with large desires.

Throughout his tenure on the Bowers, Anne Shih and Ed Roski, Jr., now Chairwoman and Honorary Member of the Bowers Board of Governors, respectively, have been his common journey companions, fellow visionaries, and nice buddies. Peter and Anne met shortly after his arrival on the Bowers and she or he quickly grew to become a important a part of his and the museum’s success. Anne requested Peter if there was something she might assist with in Taiwan and he stated “get me a Jade exhibit” – the remainder is historical past. Anne and Peter traveled collectively to China over 100 occasions in the course of the 25 years that Anne has been energetic within the museum, to barter displays and dream up new ones.

Peter and Ed Roski bonded over a love of amassing and, with their wives, visited Papua New Guinea quite a few occasions. They have been all the time led by Lesley Martin, an in depth buddy and professional in Papua New Guinea and its tradition. It was on these journeys that Peter and Ed obtained the objects that may finally kind Spirits and Headhunters: Artwork of the Pacific Islands, a everlasting exhibit on the Bowers. Within the final yr alone, Ed, Peter, and Signe traveled to the South Pole collectively, in addition to to London (to barter displays with the British Museum and the Royal Geographical Society), Normandy, Paris, and Berlin. Peter and Ed have been additionally energetic members of the Explorer’s Membership and the Royal Geographical Society. In 2010, the Explorer’s Membership awarded Peter the esteemed Thomas Lowell Medal for his excellent achievements in exploration and extra particularly his fieldwork in New Guinea and the South Pacific.

Final yr, the Bowers celebrated Peter’s thirtieth Anniversary as President of the Bowers Museum and honored him by naming its entrance the “Peter C. Keller Entrance.” Everybody who enters the museum by means of its lovely courtyard shall be reminded of Peter’s important position in making the museum a treasured cultural heart voted “Greatest Museum in Orange County” 26 years in a row.

The Peter We Knew and Liked

Peter met his spouse Signe in 1996 they usually immediately related over their love of Africa, journey, and world cultures. In 1997, they have been married on the Bowers Museum in a good looking ceremony with kimonos, African dancers, Indian flutists, and Irish fiddlers. Starting with their honeymoon safari throughout the Serengeti, and culminating with a bucket-list journey to the South Pole, Peter and Signe have traveled always throughout their 25 years of marriage. From deep sea diving with sharks to going zero gravity with Russian cosmonauts, from subterranean chambers of the Nice Pyramids to dugout canoes up the Sepik River, Peter and Signe shared curiosity and pure pleasure for exploring the far corners of the world. They reminisced about their adventures over sundown cocktails and common dinner events, and deliberate future journeys over lengthy morning walks to the espresso store with their golden retrievers.

All through his life, Peter liked creating reminiscences and establishing traditions. He discovered one thing he preferred and caught to it: gin and tonics, his wardrobe (principally khakis and a polo shirt), Toto’s Africa, the Seaside Boys, Jimmy Buffett, and the Out of Africa soundtrack on fixed rotation in his automobile, and naturally his golden retrievers. His canine have been part of the Bowers household and have been even given security-dog standing.

Peter’s love of sure routines additionally made them particular, establishing a legacy of particular moments and favourite locations for his household to go to, revisit, and go on in his reminiscence. Peter liked stroll, reflective moments smoking his pipe, and conversations round a fireplace whether or not at residence, up in Mammoth, or within the Serengeti. He made a degree of celebrating a very powerful milestones (birthdays, Christmas Eve, graduations, weddings, or only a good speak) with the solar taking place and the sky aglow. Whereas strolling the seaside together with his grandchildren, he would take them attempting to find rocks and explaining the completely different minerals and formations, thereby passing on the love of rock-collecting that was sparked in Peter as a baby

Within the month earlier than he handed, Peter was in a position to spend time with most of his household. There have been weekends in Washington, DC and San Diego with Elizabeth, Bret, and their households, weddings and birthday celebrations with Meghan and Brian. In late September, Peter visited Allentown for the primary time because the pandemic, revisiting his childhood residence, his paper route, his highschool, and the farmer’s market he frequented as a baby. That night was spent together with his sister, Pat, her husband, kids, and grandchildren, and with Signe and Elizabeth. The subsequent morning, whereas visiting the grave of his mom, Peter confirmed Signe and Elizabeth the household plot the place he wished to be buried. Nobody might think about that he can be buried there, subsequent to his mom and father, simply two months later.

Peter is survived by his spouse, Signe; his kids, Elizabeth (husband Alex), Bret (spouse Sara), Keirsten, step-daughter Meghan (husband Aric), and step-son Brian (spouse Becca); his grandchildren Jack, Ava, Stella, and Aurora; his sister Patricia (husband Robert); nieces Sonya (spouse Melissa, son Chase) and Tonya (husband Samuel, kids Samuel, Olivia, and Isabelle); and beloved golden retriever, Matty. Peter can also be survived by an prolonged Pennsylvania household, numerous buddies (previous and new), journey companions, fellow collectors, and everybody who liked the Bowers.

In Lieu of flowers, Dr. Keller’s household asks that donations be made to the Bowers Museum.These funds shall be used to proceed his legacy and develop his favourite everlasting assortment exhibition: Spirits & Headhunters: Artwork of the Pacific Islands.

Revealed by Stephens Funeral Residence, Inc. – Allentown from Nov. 23 to Nov. 24, 2022.