William C. Keller, lawyer, government official and Silver Owl, dies at 93

William Charles Keller, a Silver Owl member of the Club who was a lawyer and official with several government lending and claims settlement agencies, died Aug. 22 in his adopted hometown of Gaithersburg, Md, after a short illness. He was 93.

Keller first worked at the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission from 1952 to 1958, settling claims made by countries for damages sustained in World War II. From 1958 to 1960, he was general consul for the American Medical Association in Chicago. He then returned to Washington where from 1960 until 1972 he worked at the Export-Import Bank, negotiating international loan agreements that allowed foreign governments to finance everything from the acquisition of airplanes to the construction of bridges. Subsequently, he was appointed vice chairman of the Micronesian Claims Commission and lived in Saipan while settling the final foreign war damage claims from World War II, a position from which he retired in 1979.

Keller then continued working for six more years for the International Finance Corporation negotiating international loan agreements for the World Bank.

A member of the Press Club since 1964, he became a Silver Owl in 1989 and, at his death, was less than two years away from becoming a Golden Owl. He also was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Military Order of the Carabao.

Born in St. Marys, Pa. in 1919, Keller was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of George Washington University and the Georgetown University School of Law, where he served on the Board of Editors of the Law Journal as the Recent Decisions Editor.

He served in the Army during World War II, including a year and a half spent in the Philippines. At his separation from active military service in September 1946, he held the rank of captain. He continued to serve in the Air Force Reserve and was retired in 1979 with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Dorothy Marie (Dippold) Keller; a daughter, Lois Ann Keller-Poole of Walkersville, Md; two granddaughters; two step-grandsons; and four step-great grandchildren.