Kenneth Keating

Keating was born in Lima, New York on May 18, 1900, the son of Louise (Barnard) Keating, a schoolteacher, and Thomas Mosgrove Keating, a grocer.[1] He was tutored by his mother until age seven, when he began attending the Lima public schools as a sixth grader.[2] He graduated from high school at age 13[2] and attended Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, from which he graduated in 1915 as the class valedictorian.[3] He graduated from the University of Rochester in 1919,[4] and was a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity[5] and Phi Beta Kappa.[6] He taught Latin and Greek for a year at Rochester's East High School, then began attendance at Harvard Law School.[4] He graduated in 1923, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in Rochester.[4] Keating's early forays into politics and government included service as town attorney for the town of Brighton, where he resided while practicing law in Rochester.[2]

During World War I, Keating served in the Student Army Training Corps at the University of Rochester, where he attained the rank of sergeant.[7] In April, 1942 Keating joined the Army for World War II and was commissioned as a major.[8] He served initially as chief of the assignments branch in the international division of the Army Service Forces headquarters, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in October, 1942.[8][9]

In 1943, Keating was assigned to India as head of the Army Service Forces international office that administered the Lend-Lease Program for the China Burma India Theater, part of the South East Asia Command commanded by Lord Louis Mountbatten.[10] He was promoted to colonel in February 1944[9] and in July 1944 he made an assessment tour of the theater's front lines with General Albert Coady Wedemeyer, Mountbatten's chief of staff, which took him to sixteen countries, including Ceylon, Burma, Indochina, and Java.[11] Keating later served as executive assistant to Mountbatten's U.S. deputy, Lieutenant General Raymond Albert Wheeler, and was the senior American officer at the South East Asia Command's rear headquarters in India.[11] In November 1945, Mountbatten dispatched Keating to London to provide Parliament information on the post-war rebuilding of India.[11] Keating closed out his wartime service as a liaison between the Army Services Forces and the British military office in Washington, DC, and was awarded the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Order of the British Empire.[11][12][13]

Keating remained in the Organized Reserve Corps after the war, and was promoted to brigadier general in 1948.[14] He continued to serve until retiring from the military in 1963.[15][16]

A Republican, Keating was a member of the New York delegation to every Republican National Convention from 1940 to 1964 with the exception of 1944, when he was overseas with the Army.[6] On returning to the United States after World War II, Keating ran successfully for a Rochester-area seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1946 election.[6] He was reelected five times, and served in the 80th, 81st, 82nd, 83rd, 84th and 85th United States Congresses (January 3, 1947 to January 3, 1959).[6]

Keating was regarded as a liberal Republican on many issues, but adopted conservative positions on anticommunism during the Cold War and fighting organized crime.[4] He supported the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan and sponsored an early civil rights bill.[4] He opposed diplomatic recognition of "Red China" after the Chinese civil war, and supported allowing the Federal Bureau of Investigation to use tactics including wiretaps on organized crime figures and suspected communist sympathizers.[4] As a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, Keating was active in shepherding the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to passage.[17] Keating also enhanced his public profile by creating a semi-monthly Rochester-area television show in which he discussed current events with government officials including fellow members of Congress, which increased his personal popularity among his House colleagues, who appreciated the opportunity to publicize their activities.[4]

In 1958, Keating was the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat of the retiring Irving Ives, and defeated Democrat Frank Hogan, the New York County District Attorney.[4] He served from January 3, 1959 to January 3, 1965 (the 86th, 87th and 88th Congresses) and was defeated for reelection in 1964 by Robert F. Kennedy.[18] During his Senate term, Keating served on the Judiciary and Rules committees.

In 1960, Keating introduced the Twenty-Third Amendment to the United States Constitution, which allowed residents of the District of Columbia to vote in presidential elections.[6] In 1962, before the Cuban Missile Crisis that began in October, Keating publicly cited a source who had informed him that the Soviet Union and Cuba had constructed intercontinental ballistic missile facilities in Cuba that could target the United States, and urged President John F. Kennedy to take action.[4][6] He also worked with a bipartisan coalition that enabled passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by breaking a conservative filibuster.[6]

During the 1964 Republican National Convention, Keating staged a walkout of the majority of the New York delegation after conservative Barry Goldwater won the presidential nomination.[6] In the general election campaign, Keating refused to endorse Goldwater, and did not campaign for him in New York. Keating outperformed Goldwater on election day, but was defeated for reelection by the Democratic nominee, Robert F. Kennedy, who had established residency in New York shortly before becoming a candidate.[6] Keating accused Kennedy of "carpetbagging", but Democratic strength in what proved to be a wave election nationwide was sufficient to propel Kennedy to victory.[18]

Keating suffered a heart attack on April 17, 1975 while visiting his daughter in New Jersey, and was admitted to Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City.[19] He died in the hospital on May 5.[4] Keating's funeral was held at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, and he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.[20]

In 1928, Keating was married to Louise DePuy, who died in 1968.[4] In 1974, he married Mary Leet Pitcairn (d. 2009), the former wife of William Harding Jackson and former secretary for General Omar N. Bradley.[21] She was the widow of attorney Wendell Davis, who had been a law school classmate of Keating.[4][21] In addition to his second wife, Keating was survived by his daughter, Judith K. Howe of Short Hills, New Jersey.[4]

The federal building in Rochester is named for Keating.[22] Brooklyn Law School awards the annual Judge Kenneth B. Keating Memorial Prize to a member of each graduating class who demonstrates exceptional achievement in the field of conflict of laws.[6] The Kenneth Barnard Keating Papers are part of the Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation holdings at the University of Rochester.[23] Senator Keating Boulevard in the town of Brighton, a road which was constructed in the late 1990s, is named for Keating.[24]

• United States Congress. "Kenneth Keating (id: K000036)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• U.S. State Department Archives (People)
• A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with Kenneth B. Keating (April 2, 1954)" is available at the Internet Archive
• A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with Rep. Kenneth B. Keating (June 20, 1952)" is available at the Internet Archive
• Arlington National Cemetery