Stephen William Keller was born at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 24, 1971. He was in a big hurry, Alice relates. Jim McLeskey came over from next door to take care of David and Karen as Alice and George rushed off to GBMC for the delivery.
When he was 15 days old, Stephen started attending Oak Grove. He loved it. At home, Stephen's crib was placed in the family room, right in the middle of all the activities that go along with an older brother and sister. In the midst of the beginning of a very social life, he prospered.
Stephen really looked forward to attending school. On his first day, Alice put him on the bus. At the end of the day, he rode home on the same bus as big sister Karen. When she came running into the house at the end of the day, Alice asked where Stephen was, and Karen replied, "Stephen who?" He got an extra long ride on the bus that first day.
Early in his career at Bakerfield Elementary School, Stephen came home with great news: He sat in front of "the smartest boy in the world," a fine young man, Tom Scocca.
Stephen enjoyed playing softball and baseball during his school years. There's a good picture of Stephen in a baseball uniform in the collection of pictures on display today. Highlights of the Aberdeen Middle School years included a group of friends known as "The Defenders," who enjoyed each other's company and invaded each other's homes on a monthly basis. Then there were the parties in the basement of the house on Garrett Court in Aberdeen . . . . and the ball games and ice cream socials in the yard. The Olympics of the Mind competitions were challenging and fun and another good reason to spend much time with friends.
By the time he was about 11 years old, when Karen was 16, the Kellers had discovered that Stephen was an excellent navigator. So he and Karen quickly bonded into a team. She would drive; he would get them to the proper destination. This pairing worked to marvelous the advantage until Karen went off to college.
Stephen enjoyed the youth group at Oak Grove, with its many activities. His frequent birthday celebrations were legend. They usually coincided with a youth retreat or camp experience. Forbidden to play high school football, he enjoyed flag football here. So it worked out to be here on the back lot of Oak Grove that he damaged one of his knees! Ouch!
As Tom Scocca has written, Stephen wanted to letter in high school sports. So, between sophomore and junior years, he had the obligatory physical exam. There was something "funny" about his blood pressure, so he had a couple of extra exams and tests. They showed that he had chronic myelogenous leukemia, CML. George and Alice talked to Dr. Joan Edwards, who assured them that with a bone marrow transplant, CML could be cured. Stephen asked his family, however, not to tell his friends about his leukemia, so he could be "Steve the jock," and not "Steve, the boy with leukemia." After looking through the US and the British registries, a bone marrow donor was found in Canada. After his high school graduation, Stephen had his transplant. He told his friends, and his parents told their friends, only during the last week before the transplant. The members of this church prayed for him, in shifts, for more than 24 hours during that first, important day. Many of those who are present today remember those anxious days. The bone marrow transplant was successful. It was the first bone marrow transplant for leukemia from an unrelated donor successfully completed at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Stephen was required to stay "at home" during the year of his recovery, but home was not very exciting. Gudrun Sturek, "Goody", asked him to work in her home on her tour business, so his parents declared her home to be Stephen's "home," and off to work he went!
The next fall, Stephen entered Davidson College in North Carolina. It was a happy time in his life. Davidson and Stephen were good for each other. He made many life-long friends there. During his sophomore year, he decided to major in German. He spent his junior year abroad, in Wurtzburg, Germany. Alice and George, and his brother, David, visited him there during spring break, and the four of them spent nearly two weeks touring Germany together, with Stephen as translator.
Soon after the George and Alice returned to the US, they began to hear of a "Greek friend." Occasionally, Stephen would ask them to mail a special item to him for his "Greek friend." At the end of the spring term, Stephen asked for and received permission to visit his "Greek friend" in Greece. Only after his return to the States did Alice and George learn that Stephen's Greek friend was Elena, and that she was a very special friend indeed.
During his senior year at Davidson, Stephen decided to become a teacher. The head of the Education Department at Davidson took him under her wing and opened the necessary doors for him to be a student teacher in an immersion German elementary school in Charlotte, North Carolina. Elena visited the Keller family at Christmas time that year, and afterward, her English had improved so much that she and Stephen could converse by telephone. My, did the phone bill go up after that!
For his graduation present from Davidson, Alice and George gave Stephen a one-way plane ticket to Greece. They can still recall the pleasant time of waiting at Dulles airport for the Air France plane. The woman in front of Stephen had several carry-on items; the airline personnel limited Stephen, strictly, to one and only one. It was a rare moment, but usually happy Stephen was momentarily annoyed.
So Stephen lived happily in Greece from June, 1994 until October, 2003. With the help of Elena's father, Stephen got a job teaching English in a private school for foreign languages. He quickly also signed up individuals for private English lessons. He stayed very busy with teaching; as his students achieved success in the standardized international exams, he soon had to turn away potential private students.
Alice and George first visited Greece in the spring of 1996. During Stephen's Easter break, they and he toured much of mainland Greece together. Most spectacular was Easter Saturday night / Sunday morning in Delphi. The most important event on that trip was the formal engagement of Stephen to Elena.
Stephen and Elena's wedding ceremony took place in the spring of 1998. More than 20 friends from America and England visited Xanthi, Greece, for the wedding and the reception. Their numbers and enthusiasm left a lasting impression on that little city!
Stephen and Elena faithfully traveled to the United States each summer and a couple of times for the Christmas holidays. Stephen planned the visits so they could spend time with family and friends up and down the east coast. This last summer, Elena's parents joined Stephen, Elena, and little George during the vacation in the States.
Stephen and Elena's son George was born on November 15, 2000, to the amazement of Stephen's oncologists, who had not expected Stephen to be able to father children. George's little sister is due in March, 2004. Elena plans to remain in Xanthi, Greece, near her parents, brothers and close friends, and where she has a successful and established law practice.
Stephen's friend and college roommate, Wyatt Lilly, has written: