Ernie Keller honored at CGCC on June 11th; Family hopes to raise $25k for students

From Columbia Gorge Community College:

Friends and family will gather Saturday, June 11, 2022, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on The Dalles Campus of Columbia Gorge Community College for a memorial celebration of Dr. Ernest Rudolph Keller (Ernie), long-time civic leader and champion of vocational education.

Dr. Keller passed away July 15, 2020, from complications of COVID-19. Services were deferred through the pandemic, until such time as a public gathering could be scheduled safely. A Seattle native, “Ernie” Keller served in the U.S. Army before beginning his teaching career in 1967.

He devoted his life to education, gaining practical knowledge of technical training by working in such varied jobs as fisheries, cabinet-making, cooking, shop-keeping and construction. He became regional coordinator for career and vocational education with the Wasco County Educational Service District in 1977, earned his Doctorate of Education in 1989, and served as chair of the Wasco County Planning Commission during the Rajneesh era.

He retired in 2001, a year later winning election to the Columbia Gorge Community

College board of trustees, where he served for the next 17 years. He was instrumental in the college’s subsequent growth, both on The Dalles Campus and the establishment of the Hood River – Indian Creek Campus in 2008.

The June 11 memorial is open to the public, hosted in the Columbia Gorge Regional Skills Center by the CGCC Foundation and the Keller Family. Family members wish to raise $25,000 to fully endow the Dr. Ernest and Gloria Keller Scholarship Fund so this can continue to support students enrolled at CGCC.

If you would like to support the family’s efforts, please make your donation to the CGCC Foundation through its secure website at www.cgccfoundation.org or by mailing a check to 400 East Scenic Dr., The Dalles, OR 97058.

Ernie and Gloria Keller will be among the very first donors recognized on the Columbia Gorge Regional Skills Center donor wall. Persons wishing to attend are asked to email Wendy Patton, executive director of the CGCC Foundation, wpatton@cgcc.edu , or call (541) 506-6104. RSVPs are also invited before June 9 by following this link.