With deepest sorrow we note the passing of Phil Keillor, Wisconsin Sea Grant’s coastal engineering specialist for nearly 30 years. Keillor died Feb. 27 of injuries sustained while ice skating with his daughter and granddaughter. He was 71.

During his three decades with Wisconsin Sea Grant, Keillor earned a national reputation for the technical assistance, guidance, and educational services he provided to coastal communities along Wisconsin’s shores, throughout the Great Lakes, and beyond. Along the way, he deeply impressed colleagues and co-workers with his competence, his integrity, and his respect for everyone he encountered, on the job and off.

Keillor was the only coastal engineer in the Great Lakes states during his career, and one of very few such specialists in the country. If you struggled with any of the challenges that arise from living or working along the coast, Phil was ready to help. Over the years, his work protected coastal infrastructure from the onslaughts of howling winds, pounding waves, eroding sand and soil, and collapsing bluffs. Yet he also helped protect many miles of natural Great Lakes shoreline from the relentless pressures of development. Phil warned swimmers about rip currents when few people realized they exist in the Great Lakes. He helped communities and government agencies wrestle with the technical and economic challenges of dredging harbors and cleaning up contaminated sediments.

But Phil brought far more than wide-ranging knowledge and competence to his work. As many city and county planners, other government officials, and home and business owners have attested, he approached every problem, every project, every phone call with remarkable thoughtfulness and care. His research was always thorough, his advice was always well-reasoned, his commitment unfailingly complete. To those who knew Phil professionally, it came as no surprise that he remained very active after his retirement in 2003, informing the Great Lakes community about climate change and serving on the board of the Great Lakes Observing System.

The reflections and reminiscences offered here are a modest tribute to an inspiring friend and colleague who left us too soon.

“I worked with Phil on many Great Lakes coastal issues. His approach was always thoughtful, logical, cost-effective and practical. His positive influence on Great Lakes coastal communities is immeasurable. More than anything, however, I will miss Phil as a friend. I cannot think of a person who did not enjoy just being around him. He was thoughtful, kind, spiritual, humorous and sometimes a little mischievous. Above all, he was a mensch, a truly good guy. This is not a just a great loss for his family, but also for everyone else who knew him. He will always be remembered as a man of true integrity, professionalism and kindness.”

“I worked with Phil for over 25 years. He provided a very valuable service to the SEWRPC, and the counties and local units of government lying along the Lake Michigan shoreline in southeastern Wisconsin. Phil was the primary source of technical information and education on shoreline erosion and protection measures and policies. He served on a number of advisory committees and was critical in getting shoreline protection and preservation considerations factored into land use decisions in the area. We were lucky to have him, and he will be missed.”

“Phil was a mentor for me for 20 years. He was a huge resource for information. He always had a clear, thorough way of thinking. He had a good way of teasing out ideas. When I became the coastal engineer at Sea Grant after Phil retired, he was respectful of the strengths I brought to the position. He really valued the differences between people and their unique set of connections, abilities, and perceptions.

“Just a few weeks before he died, Phil was advising me on my work planning for the next four years. He kept involved in Sea Grant’s work, but only when asked. And that was very true to his style. He was always low-key and personable. He always offered to do public speaking, but his real strength was in one-on-one discussions, exploring ideas. He helped you understand things, never made a decision for you. When you asked him about a problem, he’d look at you with that twinkle in his eye, and then out would come this guidance, this wise counsel, that would make perfect sense.”

“Phil meant a lot to our program. He provided input that we really needed on our technical advisory committee to review public access projects. He had so much insight and forethought about how projects should incorporate fluctuations in lake levels. His general interest and expertise in knowing how structures have changed and how lake levels impacted their use, that was really important.

“In his work on bluff erosion in Ozaukee or Bayfield County, he was able to explain littoral drift, undercutting of the toe, slope instability because of seeps. He could give you options, how take adaptive management approaches to minimize any loss of facilities or capital investments.

“Even after his time with Sea Grant, he continued participating in our natural hazards workgroup, and, again, he had strong relationships with local governments, and a tremendous knowledge about coastal systems. He brought forth the issue of climate change and adaptive management, and all sorts of things that we hadn’t incorporated.

“Another thing that’s striking is the relationships that he built with people. He could probably go into any little community along Wisconsin’s Great Lakes coasts and find any number of people that he could talk to about a project they had in common.

“Personally, I think about what a principled man he was. He wanted to do things the right way for people, and people know that about him. If Phil offered an opinion, it was well thought-out. And he always wanted to be constructive. In my time here, I’ve really tried to emulate him.”

“I already miss Phil’s thoughtful pauses and occasional mischievous grin. Phil taught me valuable lessons about public service. His work was thorough and meticulous. I saw firsthand how much effort Phil put into every request for technical assistance he received. He was such a great role model for public service. That was back in the tight quarters of the basement in the house on University Avenue, and while I didn’t spend a lot of time there, I knew it took a special person to maintain such an upbeat attitude while watching cars drive by a few feet above his head.”

“I shared an office with Phil Keillor for 10 years at the old Sea Grant building on University Avenue. It was not a great room to share -- it was below ground level and had horrible water leaks in the spring -- but I am grateful for the opportunity it gave me to work with Phil and get to know him. There were many times when I'd have questions about the articles or radio scripts that I wrote and edited, and I could count on Phil to help me out, or at least to try. All I had to do was raise my voice to be heard above the noise of the dehumidifier, and even if Phil didn't have an answer to my question, he usually knew who would.

“I relied on Phil even after we moved above ground to separate offices in a different building in 1999, and even after I left Madison in 2007 to take a job in Los Angeles at USC. Last summer, I started writing a story about a researcher here who's using sensors and radar to monitor water quality offshore, and I asked Phil if he knew what publications might carry the piece. Phil suggested the magazine Sea Technology. I sent a letter of inquiry, the editor said yes, and my story is scheduled to run in the May 2009 issue.

“It has been 10 years since Phil and I left our shared office, six years since Phil retired and two years since I left Madison, and I feel like he’s still helping me out. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to work with Phil Keillor and to know him as a friend. The only thing I can add is that I wish I had known him better. He was a great guy.”

“It was a true honor to present Phil with the William Q. Wick Award for Visionary Career Leadership through Programming on behalf of the Assembly of Sea Grant Extension Program Leaders in 2004. I remember Phil telling me before the banquet that he thought it was odd to give someone an award for simply doing their job. But the people he worked with thought he did so much more.”

“He gave one heck of a field trip. I remember going on a very interesting, very thorough tour of Wisconsin coastal sites with him years ago. He obviously knew the sites well, what was working and what wasn’t. Phil was a true professional. He was passionate about professional coastal engineering.”

“I first met Phil in 1975. I was the new program leader for Minnesota Sea Grant and Phil called me shortly after I arrived, and volunteered to come and visit to share what he had been doing. My programming background was in engineering, and Phil, the coastal engineer for Wisconsin Sea Grant, wanted to show me what he had been working on in the Lake Superior region. I remember well, during Phil’s first visit with me, he took me to a Corps of Engineers demonstration site near Ashland, Wisconsin, showing different techniques to protect a coastal region that received high intensity wave action (rubber tires do not work well and stone rip-rap works the best!). Phil had worked with the Corps in setting up this demonstration site.

“I soon recognized Phil was a very knowledgeable and well-prepared Coastal Engineer, who was always willing to share his knowledge. From a coastal engineering perspective I realized I was not in the same league as Phil. Phil was very generous with his time and talent with Minnesota Sea Grant, and I called on Phil often to do mutual programming and encouraged him to share his expertise with Minnesota Sea Grant. Phil was more than willing to do so, and made a number of trips to Minnesota to be a part of a Sea Grant Program.

“During my 21 years with Minnesota Sea Grant, Phil and I did cooperative programming together on numerous occasions in both Minnesota and Wisconsin. I will always remember Phil as the finest Coastal Engineer that I knew, as well as a true gentleman, and a friend. Sea Grant was very fortunate to have Phil Keillor for so many years.”