Bob Keeshan

[Pete Ferrand]

It was my privilege to interview Bob Keeshan on radio a few years ago in
connection with the release of his book, and a local signing ceremony.

As has been described elsewhere he spoke of the importance of parents to
take an active part in the raising of their children. Didn't really have
a solution for what to do with those parents that don't. Perhaps a
general societal expectation that parents do talk, read, and spend time
with their kids is the best answer.

We spent some time reminiscing about the show of course, and since
Norwich was part of the station's coverage I asked why he moved there,
though I don't recall the answer. 
Since I was once a devoted viewer, it was good to be able to tell him
that I enjoyed watching him during a time in my life when few other
things were enjoyable. I've no memory of his previous clownings.

Although thousands of people have conveyed such appreciations to him, at
the time of someone's passing one thinks of missed opportunities and I'm
glad I didn't miss this one. 

There was another case where someone had done an extensive article on an
antenna design in a radio magazine, and twenty years later I built it,
it worked great, and I happened to run across the author and told him.
Glad I did because he died a few months later and since he was my age it
was a quite a surprise.

To reinforce what I guess most of us already know, I checked a number of
Bob Keeshan obits this weekend in various newspapers on the web. They
placed his death at his home in Hartford, Quechee, Windsor, and several
other places around the Upper Valley, in addition to Norwich. The
Hartford town/village confusion is common, but shows how often simple
things are beyond them. Also unacceptable for a newspaper that does a
fairly lengthy obit is to place the death or residence in "Vermont"
without even bothering to specify where, as several did. 

Could be the initial reports were garbled and the editors chose to skip
the town rather than get it wrong, which makes sense. However, I've
noticed many times over the years that some people in other parts of the
country regard both VT and NH as being some vague and interchangeable
region with no towns or cities, just picturesque little settlements that
are somehow undifferentiated.

-Pete
Enfield, NH