Timothy F O'Keeffe

After SPHS, Don Kronenberg and I spent the summer working for a mortuary accommodation service picking up dead bodies. We still have those stories to tell! I went to USC and Don up to UCSB.
Through college I worked as a musician playing bass guitar for a band called Shazam. Best gigs were Hollywood Palladium and Ontario Motor Speedway with Rare Earth. Most pay was Harrah's in Lake Tahoe. $200.00 per week. Is that a career?
After graduation from SC, I drove up to UCSB, got a cap and gown and went through graduation with Don. Did we have out bathing suits on under those robes? Don headed north by train to Alaska and I headed to the beach in Oxnard where hippies built campfires, played guitar and a Harley Davidson biker with a One Way Jesus vest led me to Christ. Contemporary Christian music was just getting started with guys like Larry Norman (whose drummer lived next door to me in So Pas) So I started playing music in church while working for Dial Finance company. Adulthood started around 1978 for me.
Headed up to San Francisco to study music and became a Youth Minister in a couple of Southern Baptist churches...fired from both! I rarely got the hang of church politics but tried real hard.
Then I headed to St. Louis to serve as a Youth and Youth Music minister (yes fired) But learned a lot the pastor there mentored me for decades.
Now let's try Pastor. Headed to seminary in Kansas City and a full-time pastor job in Stewartsville, MO. pop 684. Loved it! If I had it to do over again, I would stay there. Still in touch with the teenagers there I took to church camp who are grandparents now! What a gift to live in a small town in the country with farmers etc. Don came to visit me here.
Around this time or a pastorate or two later, I went to Brazil on a mission trip with my guitar. Loved it. Tried to become a missionary several times so I could move my family to a foreign country (what was I thinking?) God said no, then no, then hell no!
I also followed my Dad's footsteps in sales and while I pastored, I sold copiers for Modern Business Systems in MO, then Ikon Office Solutions in MO, IA, then TX. Seems l like doing two things at once..music/preaching/copiers...oh make that three. I should be rich. No wait, I had 5 kids and lost a bunch of money trading options while trying to get enough money to move to Brazil...remember that story :) Tenho muito saudade do Brasil.

2000 - TX - music/preaching/copiers in Allen, a church in a strip mall, 150 teenagers showing up on Wed nights...very cool. It could not have gotten any better than this. Edgy, contemporary, unique, a church for people who don't like to go to church or been burned in church. Great vision, great people, family happy...I just did not have the skill set to sustain it...the band we put together was just kicking it, the music drew the people, then we got in a band fight just like the old days with Shazam. Egos kill bands and churches too.

2007 - became a sailor...yes...put together international sailing vacations for people. Let's go to Croatia, Italy, Greece, Spain, BVI's, Egypt, Turkey!

2017 - Remarried - in Houston with a 12 year old step-daughter. Yes, I still drive a kid to school at 65! Selling insurance on the phone.

2022 - I think I am retired for good from all my careers. Jennifer is a hospice nurse so that may come in handy. My step-daughter is a Sophomore this year. Jennifer and I are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and we serve in the Temple among other things. It's really been a new life for me the past 5 years. I feel happy and sad: Happy with "now" but sad with all the things I missed having only one life.

OK I liked going to school. USC for a BA. Golden Gate Seminary in CA for a MA in Music. Midwestern Seminary for a M.Div. Then a Doctor of Ministry.

South Pasadena Junior High

From 1970 in So Pas went to San Fran, Mill Valley, Fremont and Kentfield. That was way cool.
St. Louis, Kansas City, Stewartsville, MO. Shawnee Mission Kansas.
Then to Chesterfield, MO. Then north to Bettendorf, IA. Snowy...about the same westher ad Chicago! Oh that reminds me o another job. PAPER BOY with three of my kids...220 papers on Sunday. In.blizzards, busting drifts with the dog running along with the children.
Dallas for 20 years and now Houston. Moving is done I think.

I lived with my parents and 2 brothers, Arthur (Class of 71) and David who passed away the summer of his Jr year after football practice. We lived at 1014 Magnolia.

Arthur O'Keeffe, 1971
David O'Keeffe, passed away before he graduated.

Don Kronenberg. Yea I am really social :) Would like to hear from Richard Horne who got me started in them music business, Lynn Snyder and Debbie Wood who taught me to play tennis. And where is Bob Yost?

Winning CIF, sitting with the Tigerettes, lunch with Dennis Osborne, dating some wonderful SP girls, campaigning with Richard Horne ,sailing in Newport, Sr Class Play Alice in Wonderland, Ms Gutnick advising I should attend the University of Alaska! Saying goodbye to Don Kronenberg as he left for Alaska after UCSB graduation. World Cultures class of course with Mr Goto. Cross Country and Track.

I participated in cross country and track I think 1968-1969.

Wow, I guess getting married, going into the ministry, having kids, starting churches, getting 2 Masters and Doctorate, earning some recognition in my work, getting divorced and hitting my second childhood with dating again, sailing again only this time chartering boats in Europe: Croatia, Italy, Egypt,Turkey with the BVI's and Greece this year.
Remarried in 2007 and becoming a better version of myself

2005 I have a 25' Catalina on Grapevine Lake. Host a happy hour every Wed for sailors and friends who want to travel with me this year.
2017 Social dancing (3 night a week plus lessons) West Coast Swing and 2-Step
2022 - Exercising at the YMCA - Yoga and Water Zumba (things I look stupid at)

Bands: well I saw Led Zepplin at the Rose Palace when they opened for Iron Butterfly. Became a huge Stevie Miller fan after seeing him in that venue, too. Recent vicarious highs, took my 17 year old daughter to see Michael Bluble last year and watch her face light up with sheer joy. My son and I saw Steve Miller Band with Joe Cocker this year in TX. I love the old guys who can still bring it. Oh yea, the Stones in Chicago were awesome on their No Security tour.

Reading the Celistine Prophecy series now. And read Rolling Stone cover to cover when it comes, though I don't agree with the politics. I am a Tony Robbins junkie when it comes to getting your inner world together.
2022 Books The Bible: Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants

2022 - I think I am retired for good from all my careers. Jennifer is a hospice nurse so that may come in handy. My step-daughter is a Sophomore this year. Jennifer and I are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and we serve in the Temple among other things. It's really been a new life for me the past 5 years. I feel happy and sad: Happy with "now" but sad with all the things I missed having only one life.

What have I been up to in the last 39 years? Let's talk off-line about that if ya want.
2022 - I miss hanging out with my kids and grandkids.