Grant Transit founder, former Warden mayor dead at 86

WARDEN — Next week, Grant County residents have the opportunity to bid farewell to a leader.

Richard E. Keeney, longtime Warden resident, died at his home on Wednesday at 8 p.m., at the age of 86, following a long battle with cancer.

Funeral services are Tuesday, Feb. 13. at 10 a.m. at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints in Warden, at 1017 S. County Road. Arrangements are in care of Stevens Funeral Chapel in Othello.

Keeney was born Oct. 13, 1920 in Coleman County, Texas, to Thomas Ernest and Georgia Lobstein Keeney. He grew up east of Coleman, Texas on land originally purchased by his grandfather, Isaac Keeney. He was baptized in Jim Ned Creek in 1934.

In 1939 Keeney joined the U.S. Army at Ft. Bliss, Texas. His duty assignment sent him to Seattle, where he met Mary N. Neergaard. They were married June 6, 1943. He was discharged from the Army as a staff sergeant in 1945.

The couple spent seven years in Seattle, where two children were born to them — John Richard and Georgia Ann.

In 1950, the family moved to Grandview, where Keeney took up farming until 1962. Two more children were born while in Grandview: Mary Christine and Kathryn Elizabeth.

In 1964, the family moved to Othello, where Keeney held the position of general manger for Labbee Mint Farm's Columbia Basin farming operation.

On Nov. 10, 1973, Keeney married LaDawn Woolley Maw and soon after moved to Warden, where they built a home and started a machine shop business.

He entered the political arena in 1992, when he was elected mayor of Warden and served the city in that capacity through December 2003.

His position as mayor led Keeney into many areas of civic service. He was a member and chairman of the North Columbia Community Action Council, chairman of the Big Bend Economic Development Council and chairman and founder of Grant Transit Authority.

In 1995, the Washington State Department of Transportation honored Keeney for outstanding service in promoting public transportation in the state and in 1999, his name was added to the Wall of Fame by the Washington State Public Transportation and Rail Conference.

Keeney served as president and 8-year member of the Big Bend Resource Conservation and Development Council, and was a 10-year member of the board of directors for Cities Insurance Association of Washington. He was most recently ombudsman of the area's Aging and Adult Care Agency.

On March 15, 2004, American Legion Post 209 cited Keeney for over 50 years of continuous Legion membership. He was also a member of the Warden Kiwanis Club.

Keeney was an avid fisherman, fishing various lakes, rivers and reservoirs around the Northwest with longtime friend Bill Bisnet. One of his dreams was accomplished when he landed a salmon on the Deschutes River of north central Oregon.

Keeney was preceded in death by his former wife Mary in 1993. He is survived by wife LaDawn of Warden, son John Richard of Grass Valley, Ore.; daughters Georgia Bruce of Kennewick, Cris Neilson of Eagle Mountain, Utah and Kate Banaszak of Rapid City, S.D.; son Richard John Sherbon of Puyallup; stepchildren LuAnn Presnell of Othello, Steve Maw of Ronan, Mont., Stacy Maw of Canadian, Okla., Duane Maw of St. George, Utah and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

"He was a fantastic man," LaDawn Keeney said. "He was just a very special person. He worked very hard."

She met her husband in Othello when entering a real estate office.

"We just kind of got acquainted and then fell in love," she said, recalling their first date took place on March 17 of either 1972 or 1973 with a dinner and dance at the Moose Lodge in Moses Lake.

"We've been together ever since," she said.

Warden Mayor Roldan Capetillo said he was in the Warden City Council for two years when Keeney was mayor.

"I think he was a man that had great expectations for our city," Capetillo said. "He had a really good attitude towards where the city was going. He was a great leader for the community, and obviously he will be missed."

Current economic development council Chairman Bill Graedel said he worked with Keeney for 12 years as a Lincoln County commissioner.

"I think, mostly, he was a champion of the little guy," Graedel said. "He worked hard getting things done for people that didn't have too much. I was a big fan of Dick Keeney's. We'll miss Dick."

Whether one agrees or not with the sentiment, Graedel said, there wouldn't have been a Grant Transit Authority without Keeney.

"He pretty much spearheaded that thing," Graedel said. "He pushed it when lots of people were saying no, no."

Grant Transit Authority Transit Manager John Escure said Keeney developed the test-bed for the transit system in 1995 with the support of the Yakima-based program People For People. In November 1996, the system was voted in as a public transit benefit area.

Escure first met Keeney in November 1996 when he was contacted to become the system's financial officer. They worked together until Keeney was no longer mayor and thus no longer the chairman of the system, Escure explained, and enjoyed an excellent working relationship.

"His number one interest was the people of Grant County," Escure said. "Mayor Keeney was also very sensitive to the taxpayers of Grant County. He wanted to make sure he delivered a promise of a good transit system without increasing sales tax dollars. He was very conscientious."

For Keeney, the most important people were the passengers on Grant Transit, Escure said.

"Anyone who used the system was in his eyes the number one customer," he said. "In everything he dealt with, he always worried about the impact on the passenger. Everybody enjoyed working with him; I sure enjoyed working with the gentleman."

So did Bill Riley, whom Keeney hired in August 1993 as executive director of the economic development council. Riley recalled reminiscing with Keeney about the things one learns in life and in school, since Keeney had never had the opportunity to go to college because he fought in World War II.

Keeney reminded Riley of his father, and the two enjoyed a close relationship, often traveling to meetings together.

"He had a great sense of how communities develop and how each of us could play a role in giving something to the community, and I'll never forget that," Riley said. "Here was a man who gave not only to his country in his World War II tour of service, to not only the community he lived in, but also the entire Columbia Basin, because he was part of at least six to eight groups I know of that benefited the entire Basin."

Warden City Administrator Mike Thompson worked under Keeney as mayor for eight years. Before that, they had both served as members of the Warden float committee for years.

"I think he was a good guy," Thompson said. "He was very opinionated, but I got along with him well. I know there was a lot of people that did and liked him and then there was some he didn't get along so well with. If he liked you and you got along well with him, he'd do just about anything for you."

Current Quincy City Administrator Tim Snead worked with Keeney together on the economic development council and on the transit system.

"Boy, when Dick set his mind to something, by God, he got it done," Snead echoed Thompson's remarks. "You never had any problem knowing where he stood on any issue. He was not shy. Whatever organization or whatever he was working on, he was always very passionate about what he was doing. And it was always very good for the community, the county or whatever organization he was working in."

North Columbia Community Action Council Executive Director Ken Sterner remembered Keeney as tough and demanding, someone who spoke his mind without coloring any situation. But that was on the outside.

"Underneath that exterior, though, was a very big heart," Sterner said.

Sterner said Keeney was a force behind the transit system and the community action council, as well as " literally dozens and dozens" of other movements and organizations.

"Behind nearly every good thing that has happened to disadvantaged or low-income seniors in this community, Dick Keeney usually had a finger or something involved in that," Sterner said. "We all have something to thank him for."