By Timothy Dumas
Contributing Editor
Frank Keegan, the colorful longtime head of the Department of Parks and Recreation who set an example for Greenwichites by getting fit in middle age, died on Jan. 27 in Hollywood, Fla., where he had lived for the past 15 years. He was 79 years old.
Keegan joined the department in 1963 and became its director ten years later. He headed Parks & Rec for 22 years, retiring in 1995. Keegan was known for his wisecracking wit, but also for his sharp administrative skills. During his tenure, he built Parks & Rec into perhaps the most prestigious such department in the Northeast.
One day, Keegan noticed that nicely produced Parks & Rec brochures, depicting town amenities like Bruce Golf Course (as the public course was then known), Dorothy Hamill Skating Rink and Greenwich Point, were disappearing swiftly—too swiftly—from the table outside his office. It turned out local real estate agents were pilfering them to entice prospective homebuyers.
As chief of Parks & Rec, Keegan’s domain was expansive. He oversaw the marine facilities, 1,400 acres of beaches, parks and trees, and a slew of recreation programs, from sailing to baton twirling. His department employed 123 people full-time, 500 part-time, and had a budget of over $7 million, the largest Parks & Rec budget in the state.
Early on, there were few signals that the department would explode quite like that. In 1964, with GHS chemistry Bill Taylor, he tried getting a five-mile Memorial Day road race off the ground. Nobody was interested. “They even drove around to bars, trying to get people out to run,” said retired Greenwich Police Lt. Tom Keegan, a nephew of Frank’s. Of course, the Memorial Day Run soon became immensely popular and was eventually renamed in honor of the late running writer Jim Fixx, who lived in town.
Though Keegan was said to have a temper—he himself put it down to his Irish blood—he handled the often-peculiar problems he encountered with grace and humor. There was, for instance, the battle of the bowling green. The neatly manicured greensward in Bruce Park had always been home to lawn bowlers—all of them elderly and most of them dressed fashionably in white. But in the summer of 1990 an equally old and dapper contingent of croquet players horned in, raising the lawn bowlers’ territorial hackles. Keegan helped broker a peace treaty by which the two feisty factions shared the green and the equipment shed, and the croquet players agreed to use special wickets to preserve the grass’s unblemished surface.
Keegan was less successful in trying to eradicate Canada geese from Greenwich’s parks. Their droppings made many open spaces—usually choice stretches of beach and lawn—unwalkable, or at least unpleasantly walkable.
Keegan called the birds “rats with wings.” He told The New York Times, “It’s like guerrilla warfare. We’ve tried fireworks, scarecrows, electric fences. Some people here think we should import coyotes and Panamanian vultures, which supposedly consider geese a delicacy.”
Keegan tried having the geese deported to Texas “where they were welcome.” But they preferred Greenwich and quickly flew home—recognized as local geese by the bands on their feet. Though Keegan could not claim victory in the Canada geese war, it did lend him a curious celebrity; he even appeared on TV in Canada, which took an amused interest in Greenwich’s goose plight.
Keegan always seemed happy-go-lucky—a comical presence among generally gray-faced officials. But his life was touched by tragedy. One night in 1982, his 20-year-old son, Kenneth, and a friend were walking on the railroad tracks between Old Greenwich and Riverside when a Conrail train struck and killed them. Keegan sank into a depression, put on weight (exacerbated by quitting smoking), and stopped exercising.
But he snapped out of his doldrums suddenly, and with a vengeance he took up running, biking and swimming. “The Keegans have never been accused of taking small bites,” Tom Keegan explained. “If we’re going to do something, we’re going to do it big.”
Soon Keegan sported a lean, muscular build that was the envy of men 20 years younger; for good measure, his square-jawed good looks returned. He entered many local races, and could often be seen jogging along town roads. He also liked to visit the Bruce Park rose garden once a week to do a little weeding, and to serve lunches at the Senior Center. “He was always everywhere at once,” Tom Keegan remarked. “I think he liked to keep an eye on things. He was the consummate town servant.”
Keegan loved to play golf up at the Bruce. Often while waiting behind a slow group, he would wander into the woods and start pocketing stray wrappers and other trash—a hands-on caretaker of everything in his charge.
He was instrumental in helping local road race impresario Mickey Yardis, owner of the Threads & Treads sporting goods store, make the Greenwich Cup an exemplary running, biking and swimming series, drawing contestants for miles around. Keegan did anything he could do to encourage a fit populace.
Francis Henry Keegan, Jr. was born in Greenwich on Jan. 3, 1937, to Francis Henry Keegan, Sr., a crew foreman for Con Edison, and the former Alice McCourt. He grew up in Pemberwick—then known as “the Happy Valley”—with three bothers, James, Paul and Thomas—who would become Greenwich’s chief of police—and a sister, Marion.
Keegan liked to tell stories from his Greenwich youth, such as that of Richie the Ice Tester, a gullible boy who—at the none-too-subtle urging of his schoolmates—could be counted on to see whether ponds were safe enough for skating. If Richie went through, then they’d all have to wait.
Keegan graduated from Greenwich High School in 1954; joined the U.S. Marines in 1956, serving for three years; attended Iona College; and graduated from the University of Bridgeport, cum laude, with a bachelor’s degree in education and English. In 1972 he earned a master’s degree in administration and recreation and leisure services from New York School of Education, from which he graduated magna cum laude.
In 2001, Keegan and his wife, Marie, moved to Florida, where they enjoyed golf, kayaking and bicycling. Recently, Keegan hit a patch of ill health, suffering from cancer and shingles.
Marie, to whom Frank was married for 55 years, survives him, as does his daughter, Kimberly A. Keegan Cassia, of Monroe; his brother Thomas, of Murrils Inlet, S.C.; his sister, Marion Neal, of Greenwich; and many nieces and nephews.
A service will be held in his honor in Florida on Feb. 12; the family is organizing a service in Greenwich, the date of which will be announced later.
