Foundation honors Keegan family public service at Rohnert Park luncheon

Jim Keegan, a good-hearted sort with historic Sonoma County roots, stood with his wife and grown children before a large banquet-hall crowd Thursday and, even without opening his mouth, honored his late mother and father.

At 66, Keegan is celebrated as a living tribute to the parents - James B. and Billie Keegan - who did much to serve and enhance the county, and who inspired him to do the same. His mere presence at the Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital Foundation awards luncheon, dedicated each year to the memory of his folks, was remarkable because earlier this year he survived a heart transplant.

As Keegan stood on a stage at Rohnert Park’s DoubleTree Sonoma Wine Country Hotel, the crowd came to its feet and applauded him for being there, for continuing his parents’ lifelong record of philanthropic leadership and for raising four children who also are making life better for others.

The celebration, attended by many of the county’s leaders in business, health care, education, politics and nonprofit work, marked the first time the hospital foundation’s Keegan Leadership Award went not to an individual or two, but to an entire family. That it was James B and Billie Keegan’s own family made the moment all the sweeter.

When the applause tapered off and the family’s patriarch at last spoke about the award, it was pure Jim Keegan.

“I deserve this,” he deadpanned.

Once the laughter peaked, the Santa Rosa commercial real-estate broker and longtime supporter of Memorial Hospital, the Redwood Empire Food Bank, Roseland University Prep, the Boy Scouts and other community endeavors added, “Just kidding. My family deserves it.”

The honor by the foundation, which raises money for the not-for-profit Memorial Hospital, noted that Keegan’s wife, Diane, and their children - Ryan, Stacy, Jill and Brian - all contribute to the vitality of the community.

Brian, whose volunteer efforts include service as president of the Luther Burbank Rose Parade & Festival, spoke after his dad. “My parents are pretty amazing people,” he said.

So, too, he added, were grandparents James and Billie. He said he and his brother and sisters learned much from them about how to treat others. He added, “We we wish we could have had more time with them to learn more.”

Brian Keegan told the crowd he and his siblings are passing their grandparents’ values on sharing and volunteering to the 10 grandchildren. Flowing from one generation to the next, he said, is an appreciation for “that good feeling you get when you do something positive for the community.”

The family was introduced at the 20th Annual Keegan Leadership Series luncheon by lifelong friends Bill and M-L Reinking. Bill Reinking, the retired Exchange Bank executive, noted that Billie Keegan was his Cub Scout leader. “She always reminded me over the years that I wasn’t the best Scout,” he mused.

Reinking noted also that another of Jim Keegan’s babies is the 1934 Plymouth he restored after his great-aunt, Hazel Asti, gave it to him as a kid more than 50 years ago.

“Like that car,” Reinking said, “this family is a true classic.”

In addition to honoring each year’s recipient of the Keegan Leadership Award, the luncheon raises money for Memorial’s Palliative Care Unit, committed to improving the quality of life and easing the pain of patients with severe or terminal illnesses. Memorial aspires to build a stand-alone palliative care center.

Keynote speaker Dr. Diane Meier, a professor at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital and director of a national organization promoting palliative care, said America’s health care system wastes dollars and causes anguish by failing to provide integrated, comprehensive care to terminal and other chronically suffering patients.

She told of a man with severe lower-back pain who, time after time, was seen in emergency rooms and admitted to hospitals at a total cost of more than $2 million, when he could have been treated far better at home for a tenth of that.

“It’s really not that complicated why we’re bankrupting ourself as a society,” Meier said.

She congratulated those present for coming together to honor the Keegans and generate money for palliative care in their community.

“I come from New York City, where this just wouldn’t happen,” Meier said. “Your city is human-scale.”

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @CJSPD.