Joe McKeehan was a lifetime telephone man. In 1943, the Navy V-12 program moved him to Cornell, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. During naval service in the Philippines he helped create the electric and telephone systems at Subic Bay. New Jersey Bell Telephone hired him fresh from the Navy in 1946.
Joe was a plant engineer by 1950. He transferred to New York Telephone, and in 1958 became a district manager. From there, he moved to executive posts in each department until he reached retirement in 1985. His retirement home for some time was in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., but his last known address was in Massapequa, N.Y.
In his autobiography in our 50th-reunion yearbook, Joe said, “I disliked nothing about Princeton.” Presumed survivors when Joe died July 31, 2011, were his wife, Ruthanne, and son Joseph III. The class is pleased to memorialize this classmate who spent only a few months with us yet maintained loyalty to Old Nassau.