Bro. Tom Keegan
"The passing of Bro. Tom is the end of an era. No other person was so involved in the history of Salesian High School as Bro. Tom Keegan. He was a historical chain linking together every student, staff member, parent and friend of Salesian High School from the opening of the school in 1958 to the day he passed away July 1, 1997."
A native of New Jersey, Tom Keegan was a staff sergeant and squadron leader in World War II. He participated in the Normandy invasion and saw additional action in the Ardennes, Central Europe, and the Rhineland. Although he was awarded the Bronze Star and the Good Conduct Medal, he never informed his family about these honors until he returned to Europe for the fiftieth anniversary celebrations of the D-Day invasion.
Tom Keegan made his first contact with the Salesians in 1946, when he was working at Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City. After making his first profession of vows two years later, he spent the next half decade in a variety of posts: as worker, cook and handy-man. He made his perpetual profession in 1954 in Watsonville, Calif., where he served as an auto mechanic and baseball coach.
When Bishop Mora Salesian High School opened its doors in 1958, Bro. Tom was a member of the first faculty. Besides teaching classes in physical education, remedial reading, math, English, and music, he faithfully visited juvenile offenders in the local detention centers.
But it was through his involvement with the track and the cross country teamsas both mentor and friend that he hoped to sow the seeds of the Kingdom of God in the souls of his young charges.
He used his daily practice to exhort his athletes -- "Keegan's Boys" -- always to be prepared: for practice, for the upcoming meet, for their classes, even for death. For him, being a coach was the best way to interact with the kids. To train them was to influence them.
It is a tribute to Bro. Tom's sense of drive to mention that even when he ended his formal coaching career in 1981 at the age of 63, he proceeded to complete a bachelor's degree in history. For the next three years he taught at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, Calif.
But it was to the people of East Los Angeles that his heart belonged. He eventually returned to Boyle Heights to help out at the Boys and Girls Club and to resume his visits to the detention centers. Even after the Salesians withdrew from the administration of Bishop Mora High School, he remained on the staff there as a freshman counselor and, when the Salesians returned, as a religion teacher and the plant manager.
Bro. Tom always expected the very best effort from his boys, and those high expectations never changed. To the world he was just a man, but to those who knew him, he was the world."
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