A detail from the scenic wallpaper installed in the Alpha Delta Phi house dining room in the late 1920s.
Former AD House Dining Room Named for Keehns
The dining room in the Samuel Eells House, formerly the Alpha Delta Phi
house, was dedicated in memory of Marjorie B. and Grant Keehn '21
during Fallcoming Weekend.
A native of Illinois, Grant Keehn came to College Hill with the Class
of 1921. He joined Alpha Delta Phi, to which he would remain devoted
throughout his life. He went on to the Harvard Business School
following his graduation Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded his M.B.A.
degree in 1923. That year, he and Marjorie E. Burchard, newly graduated
from Wellesley, were wed. She had been the first girl Grant Keehn had
ever taken to a party; he was 5-years-old at the time.
During their 38 years of marriage, Marjorie often accompanied Grant to
the campus, and the Alpha Delta Phi house became familiar to her,
especially when their son, Silas Keehn '52, was a student on College
Hill. (Other family members who have attended Hamilton are Grant
Keehn's daughter Dorka Keehn '86 and his grandson Keehn Thomsen '75.)
During a successful career in banking and insurance, Grant Keehn rose
to become executive vice president of First National City Bank and
president of the Equitable Life Assurance Society as well as a partner
in Goldman Sachs & Co. Despite his multifarious business
activities, he served as a trustee or director of the Boy Scouts of
America, the American Heart Association, the New York Public Library
and the Greater New York Fund.
In addition, Grant Keehn was served his alma mater as a member of the
board of trustees. Elected in 1948, he became vice chairman in 1951.
From 1963-69, he served as chairman, guiding Hamilton through the
planning and launching of Kirkland College and thereafter serving
concurrently on its board. He was a trustee emeritus in 1972, when his
alma mater awarded him an honorary LL.D. degree in recognition of his
contributions.
Predeceased by his Marjorie in 1961, Grant Keehn died in 1982.
Fittingly Keehn Residence Hall on the former Kirkland campus was
dedicated in his honor in 1971.
