Advertising tycoon Michael Derek Keeshan '73 Tu '75, who devoted over 35 years to the advertising and marketing industry and became one of the youngest presidents and chief operating officers of Saatchi & Saatchi New York, died of a sudden heart attack on Jan. 18 at his home in Old Greenwich, Conn., Greenwich Time reported. Keeshan worked on high-profile accounts such as Delta Airlines, Burger King and General Mills, and eventually launched the consulting firm MagiKbox, according to Greenwich Time. He was 60 years old.
"Walking up here just now, passing by Michael resting there in his coffin, I thought how ironic and distressing it is that the man known for his out of the box' thinking for the past three decades, was now lying in one," close friend Michael Jeary said in his eulogy.
Jeary met Keeshan, who had just received his MBA from Tuck School of Business, at his first job at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, an agency subsequently purchased by Saatchi & Saatchi.
"When I first met him, he was newly married, no kids, bright, funny, brash, confident and fun to be with kind of perfect [for the advertising business] is an understatement," Jeary said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Keeshan was a visionary, but never in a "lofty, distant or snobby" way, he said.
"Michael was very proud of his Dartmouth education and experience," he said. "[The Keenshans] always had a condo in Quechee, Vt., and I was sure that was because it was near Hanover."
As a testament to his devotion to his alma mater, "Dartmouth Undying" was playing as the procession walked out of the memorial service, and he is to be buried in Hanover, according to close friend Rick Routhier '73.
Routhier said he remembers meeting Keeshan on their Dartmouth Outing Club First-Year Trip and immediately connecting as "two of the shorter members of the class." The two were on the freshman crew team together and attended spring training at Kent School, according to Routhier.
"Mike had a very wonderful, warm personality, and a great sense of humor he loved entertaining people and making them laugh," Routhier said.
It was at Tuck that Keeshan met Lynn, his future wife, close friend Philip McGoohan Tu '75 said.
"He looked at her and was star-struck," he said. "He fell for her like a hormonal Dartmouth freshman would for Miss America."
The two became engaged at the end of their first year and got married the week after graduation the following year.
"Michael loved to read and write and was very creative," Lynn Keeshan said. "He had taken a lot of theater courses in undergraduate school and loved to act. In many ways he was a born showman."
It was natural for Michael Keeshan to pursue a field with such an emphasis on presentation skills, as his father Bob Keeshan was the famous "Captain Kangaroo," the titular character of the popular children's television show that aired from 1955 to 1984.
"Socially, his father was a personable celebrity' and his mother was a riot a huge personality, inclusive, big-hearted and funny," Jeary said.
Keeshan was "a natural" at marketing, according to McGoohan. His creativity, communication skills and "astute sense of what consumers really wanted" fueled his entire career, he said.
"It was his endless energy, brilliant mind, engaging personality and uproarious sense of humor that compelled me to be the moth to his flame and a significant part of each other's lives both in and out of the office," Jeary said in his address to Keeshan's close friends and family.
Keeshan thought the "world of his sons", according to Lynn Keeshan. Connor Keeshan, their younger son, works in advertising and Britton Keeshan is in his second year of pediatric residency at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia.
"We are all going to miss my father deeply," Connor Keeshan told Advertising Age, a marketing and media newspaper. "He lived every part of his life with an infectious passion that inspired all of us to find what we love and do it the best we can. Looking back, his ultimate success shows that this [advertising] business is and always will be about people the people we work with, the people we work for and the people we are." Lynn said Keeshan's absence has left a void that will be hard to fill.
"Michael loved his family, loved his friends, loved his work in the creative process and loved making these beautiful," Lynn said.
Keeshan is survived by his wife Lynn and his two sons, Britton and Connor Keeshan, according to Greenwich Time. A memorial service was held for Keeshan this past Saturday, Jan. 21 at St. Catherine of Sienna Church in Riverside, Conn.
The Keeshan family has requested that contributions be made to the Tuck School in a fund in Keeshan's name.
