Dr. George E. Keller, II, of Charleston, WV, passed away peacefully on October 7, 2019. He was 86.

Keller obtained a bachelor's from Virginia Tech in 1955, and a master’s and Ph.D. from the Penn State.

Dr. Keller served as a lecturer in President Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace Program” in 1958 and 1959. He spent the bulk of his career with Union Carbide where he was given great freedom in his work. As the manager of the Separations and Process Fundamentals Skill Center for 26 years, he invented a host of new technologies and championed and led significant efforts by others to bring these technologies to commercial fruition.  

After he retired from Union Carbide, Dr. Keller and others founded the Mid-Atlantic Technology Research & Innovation Center (MATRIC) and he served both on the board of directors and as chief engineer. Dr. Keller was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and was recognized as one of the top 100 chemical engineers of the modern era by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, AIChE. In April of 2017 Dr. Keller was awarded the Distinguished West Virginian award by Governor Jim Justice and in May 2017, he was recognized in the United States Senate with a resolution sponsored by Senator Shelley Moore Capito.

Keller was a member of the Chemical Engineering Advisory Board, the Academy of Engineering Excellence in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, as well as, a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

A celebration of Dr. Keller’s life will take place at 1 p.m. on Monday, October 14 in First Presbyterian Church Sanctuary. Visitation with the family will begin 1 and half hours before the service in the First Presbyterian Chapel, and an informal reception will be held immediately after the service.

A complete obituary can be found here.