Father Keller stood against evil where he found it

Newly-retired Little Rock native was a military chaplain, prison minister and pastor

Published: August 23, 2014

By Dwain Hebda
Associate Editor

Dwain Hebda

Father Thomas Keller pauses to take in the nice weather at St. John Center in Little Rock. The 81-year-old Arkansas native, ordained a priest in 1958, retired from active ministry July 17.

Dwain Hebda

Father Thomas Keller pauses to take in the nice weather at St. John Center in Little Rock. The 81-year-old Arkansas native, ordained a priest in 1958, retired from active ministry July 17.

Some of the turns in Father Thomas Keller’s long life in the priesthood have been cast in the shadow of evil. In 56 years of vocations he brought Christ’s love and comfort to war zones abroad and battles of conscience at home. It was a life immersed in the love of his parishes and the people who comprised them, with a little personal redemption thrown in for good measure.

“Living the faith,” he said of the best part of his priesthood. “Just living the faith, explaining the faith, practicing the faith with people and being faithful.”

Father Keller didn’t start out to be a priest, but in hindsight probably never stood a chance to be anything but. Born in downtown Little Rock, a short distance from the Cathedral of St. Andrew, he was the baby of J. Walter and Isabelle Keller’s seven children. One uncle was a priest and seven aunts were nuns.

“I probably grew up in the priesthood with all those uncles and aunts and everybody,” he said. “My brother went into the seminary too, that kind of pushed me along.”

He was also influenced by the priests on staff at Catholic High School, from which he graduated in 1950. But, with an ROTC scholarship in hand, he set off down another path.

“One Christmas I was home and I told Msgr. (James. E.) O’Connell, ‘I’m thinking about becoming a priest. I need to get in the Navy for four years after I graduate from Villanova and then I can come in,’” he recalled. “He said, ‘No, Thomas, you come in now.’”

Father Keller was ordained May 15, 1958. His assignments have taken him to to Blytheville, Pine Bluff, DeQueen, Nashville, Foreman, Texarkana, Newport, Searcy, Fayetteville, Bald Knob, Mena, Mount Ida, Waldron, Jonesboro, Jacksonville and Fairfield Bay.

Until his retirement July 17 he was the pastor of St. Rose Church in Carlisle and Holy Trinity Church in England. There he served as the chaplain at Tucker Unit’s maximum and mid-level security prisons. At each, he celebrated Mass, heard confessions and even helped inmates convert to Catholicism. In all that time, he said he never once asked an inmate to talk about his crimes or his sentence although some initiated these conversations. He said he still thinks about the men he ministered to there.

“That was a delightful ministry,” he said. “The interesting thing was how close you could get to those guys, especially the ones in Tucker Max who were all the lifers. When I looked at them I liked to see Christ, but what I really saw was myself. Who hasn’t sinned and maybe should be here instead of this guy or that guy? I used to tell them all the time, ‘You were just the one who got caught.’”

His longest stand was at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Little Rock, an experience he called “my prize.”

It was while at Good Counsel that Father Keller spent six months as Major Keller, Army chaplain during Desert Storm. Father Keller returned to Little Rock where he would once again stand a post against an evil taking innocent lives. He bought the vacant property next door to an abortion clinic not far from his church, raised a building on it called the Life Center, which included office space for Arkansas Right to Life, and started to lay siege.

“We’ll put some statues up, throw some holy water on them from time to time and do what we can,” he said. “We went over there from Good Counsel and we prayed, regularly.” The clinic has since closed.

He said his priestly priorities were straightened out by a trip to Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in 1989.

“The lady zapped me,” he said. “I got my rosary back. Got devotions back and everything. Just made all the difference in my life.”

Retirement is still new to him but he’s getting used to it, strolling the grounds of St. John Manor on the St. John Center campus in Little Rock and taking life at a more leisurely pace. At 81, his wit and his senses are sharp as ever; his advice for the next priestly generation, direct, as from one who’s been there.

“Live the faith, love the faith, love Jesus, the pope, the bishops and follow them,” he said. “Keep your eyes and ears open to the Lord, always.”