Frank Royer Keefer (1865-1954)

Frank Royer Keefer was born in Venango County, Pennsylvania on October 10, 1865 to a Presbyterian and military family. His father was Major John D. Keefer and his mother Caroline Royer Keefer; he could also boast a great-grandfather who fought with the Continental Army. He was educated at the Whitman Seminary in Walla Walla, Washington, where his father was stationed, and then at the Dickinson Preparatory School. He entered the College in 1881 and graduated with his class in 1885. While at the College, he was a member of the Union Philosophical Society.

He went on immediately to medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. Following the receipt of his medical degree in 1889, he served a residency at Philadelphia General Hospital and then, on June 6, 1890 took a commission in the Army Medical Corps. He saw active service in the Spanish-American War, participating in the assault on Manila and in the Philippine Insurgency which followed. Keefer returned home to various assignments, including as a professor of Military Hygiene at West Point from 1910 to 1914. At the Academy, he had time to write two books, Alcohol and Other Narcotics (1911) and Military Hygiene and Sanitation (1914). He did not reach France before the end of the First World War but, after a short stint as commander of the Carlisle Barracks in his old college town, took charge at Coblenz of all the medical units of the United States Army occupying Germany between 1920 and 1922. Assignments followed, including that of Chief Surgeon, Second Corps Area, New York, that culminated with his appointment as a Brigadier General and as assistant surgeon general of the Army. He retired in 1929 after almost forty years of service at home and abroad.

In retirement, he took up residence in Washington and served twelve years as the chair of the District's Red Cross chapter. Keefer married Cornelia Terrell of San Antonio, Texas who survived him. Frank Royer Keefer died at the Walter Reed Hospital on May 15, 1954 after a lengthy illness. He was ninety years old.