He spent three decades working for Wisconsin Sea Grant, educating the coastal communities along Wisconsin’s Great Lakes shores about strategies to protect their coastal infrastructure from storms and erosion, finding new uses for dredged harbor sediment and protecting swimmers from deadly rip currents. Now, to honor the memory of one of the organization’s most important figures, Wisconsin Sea Grant and the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program are proud to announce the creation of the J. Philip Keillor Coastal Management-Sea Grant Fellowship for postgraduate students.
Beginning in 2016, the one-year fellowship will provide on-the-job education and training opportunities in coastal resource management and policy. Postgraduate students selected for the Keillor fellowship will be placed at the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program.
“This is an important and meaningful way to honor Phil Keillor’s legacy,” said Jim Hurley, Wisconsin Sea Grant director. “It will help ensure that the skills he brought to benefit Great Lakes coastal communities throughout his career will be passed on through the work of future student-engineers.”
Keillor, who served as Wisconsin Sea Grant’s coastal engineering outreach specialist from 1973-2003, was one of the few coastal engineers in the national Sea Grant network during his career. His work touched and assisted countless local and county officials. And while he died in 2009 at the age of 71, his legacy clearly lives on, cemented further by this new fellowship.
“Personally, I think about what a principled man he was,” said Mike Friis, director of the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program. “He wanted to do things the right way for people. If Phil offered an opinion, it was well thought out. And he always wanted to be constructive. I’ve really tried to emulate him.”
The Keillor Fellowship exemplifies an evolving model of post-graduate fellowships shared with/supported by Wisconsin state agency partners—Wisconsin Sea Grant also offers a Wisconsin Water Resources Policy Fellowship co-sponsored by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Application materials and deadline information for the Keillor Fellowship will be made available sometime in early 2016.
