In Memoriam
Terrance Keenan
1924-2009
Founder of Local Funding Partnerships
Terrence Keenan was recognized as a visionary leader throughout his more than 40 years in philanthropy. Pauline M. Seitz, director of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships, recalls, “Terry Keenan was a most exceptional man. His formidable intellect was matched with an inherent humility and graciousness that is not often encountered in philanthropy. When Terry sighted a promising new model, he became a tenacious advocate for it.”
Keenan was an esteemed former colleague who retired only recently after serving the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) for more than 35 years. He was the first to recognize the need for a new model of grantmaking—partnering a national foundation with local funders and nonprofits—and created the original Local Initiative Funding Partners program in 1988.
Seitz notes that he brought wide-ranging experience and great compassion to his work. “Terry was a navigator in the Naval Airforce in the South Pacific, a Golden Gloves Boxer and Phi Beta Kappa at Yale,” she says. “When he championed an innovative concept like school-based health centers, Faith in Action, Advanced Practice Nurses or Local Funding Partnerships, he found a way to make it happen. Terry knew how to find the North Star and how to get there.”
In 1993 Grantmakers in Health—an organization he helped form to promote collaboration in the field—established the Terrance Keenan Leadership Award in Health Philanthropy. It is awarded annually to an outstanding grantmaker whose leadership and thoughtful application of philanthropic resources have forged permanent improvements in health through innovation, risk taking, and boldness.
