Fred s. Keller: rememberings.

Ever since Rick Shull asked me to prepare an essay of appreciation of Fred Keller, I have found myself putting it off. Somehow, something else was always needing to be done. Finally, I realized what was happening. I just did not want to face the fact that Fred was no longer with us. After a relationship that extended over more than 50 years, during which Fred taught me both pedagogically and by example, it is not easy to deal with the fact that the personal interaction I had come to value and, I realize now, to depend on, is no longer possible. The same is true for Rita, who had come to love Fred (he was fond of calling her ‘‘Rio Rita’’) even without having been his student. Knowing how much Fred meant to all in the behavior-analytic community, I am certain that many others, too, have found it difficult to come to terms with his departure. Fortunately, we still have Frances, without whom our relationship with Fred would only have been half of what it actually was. But we have to face reality, and one of the functions of preparing and reading an essay like this is to help us. I have already said much about Fred Keller by revealing that in preparing a memorial essay, I feel a greater need to talk about personal relationships than about professional accomplishments. This does not contradict my philosophic conviction that one is what one has done. What Fred did in his professional and personal activities is reflected in the behavior of others. That, after all, is the bottom line in evaluating accomplishment. Unless one influences the conduct of others, one leaves nothing behind. That is what we mean when we say that Fred was one of the great teachers: He changed the behavior of countless others and continues to do so even though he is no longer with us. Also, I need not expound in detail on Fred’s many formal accomplishments because these are known both from his own