Thomas (Kielminski) Keel

East Leyden High School

Class of 1961

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Thomas (Kielminski) Keel - Class of 1961 - East Leyden High School

First Name	Thomas
Last Name	(kielminski) Keel
Graduation Year	Class of 1961
Gender	Male
Current Location	Marietta, Georgia
Hometown	Chicago, Illinois
Relationship Status	Married
About Me	Karen Ann Johnson and I, married May 14, 1966, and we are even more in love today. I have lived 32 years in the Chicagoland area (Chicago, Franklin Park, Arlington Hts, and Bloomingdale, IL), and in Marietta, GA since the beginning of 1977. God saved me in May 1963. Early February, 1964, I met Karen Ann Johnson (Foreman HS '62). In May 1966 we married and we have three children; born 1968, 1972, and 1975. Two of my children and their spouses live nearby, and my eldest is unmarried and living in Indianapolis. On May 16, 2009, we welcomed our first grandchild-Noah Keel- into the world, thanks to my youngest son and his wife. I retired from Siemens Building Technologies the end of 2001, and began my Ph.D. pursuit at Georgia Tech in January 2003. (I already was taking Ph.D. coursework at Capella University. However, I never completed my Ph.D., I earned a second master's degree instead. A Masters of Science in Building Construction and Integrated Facilities Management. Now, I am employed by Georgia Tech as an adjunct professor. Since 2004, I have lived in Paris for three months each summer--May, June, and July--teaching Georgia Tech students who are doing their summer semester in Paris. However, beginning in 2012, the program has moved to the University of Reading just outside of London. Now I am learning a different "foreign language." It is a great experience for the students and me. Karen comes and joins me for a few weeks each summer, but we do not have home life that we can just lock up for a few months. Our home-front obligations require that someone be home to manage the affairs, PLUS our children and our one-and-only grandchild are too hard to leave for any extended period. At this time in my life, with the loss of both parents in 2000, I am enjoying connecting with persons from my past, even if we were not close friends back then, there exists a bond since we shared the same experiences during the same times in our lives. I wanted to be an architect or an industrial designer…I loved to draw…I wanted to go to the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago, but our family had no money and I did not know how to pursue scholarships, grants, loans, etc…so, I went to the American Academy of Art, 30 East Adams, Chicago, IL. I studied the craft to become a commercial artist working in advertising. All ads were hand-drawn in the early 1960s..no computer-generated images. I admired the great artists and spent much time in the galleries of the Art Institute of Chicago. I had little understanding of Modern Art, and no understanding of Contemporary Art. I was advised to further my education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in conjunction with the Chicago campus of the University of Illinois to earn my BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts). Does art reflect culture, or does culture reflect art? It is believed that the artists, musicians, philosophers, and academicians are the creators and shapers of culture. From looking at contemporary art, listening to contemporary music, reading contemporary literature, and attending the thousands of university classes led by anti-God professors, I agree with those who state that there is an elite class that molds society. My! How far we have fallen. We must saturate our minds with the beauty of art, music, literature, and God’s Word so we may have the capacity to think rightly about the culture surrounding us. God chose me, I had nothing to do with that, Karen did not reject me, and my children say they love me, but of all the things I have attempted, I am an absolu...(read more)