Harry Walker Keenan
Chiropractor, pioneer, pilot, skier, scuba diver, friend. Born Feb. 7, 1922, in Fredericton. Died July 8, 2011, in Ottawa of colon cancer and congestive heart failure, aged 89.
In almost every aspect of his life – and there were many – Harry (Bud) Keenan was a trailblazer. Many in Ottawa knew him as Dr. Keenan, a chiropractor. But to family and friends, he was Bud, a man who loved everything life had to offer.
After enlisting in 1942, Bud served during the Second World War as an operating-room assistant and then as an infantryman throughout Europe with the Royal New Brunswick Regiment (Carleton and York).
He met Reynecke in The Hague the day after V-E Day and they married in 1947. They had two children, Dirk and Darcy, and one grandchild.
Bud's schooling took him from Queen's University to the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, where he earned his doctor of chiropractic degree in 1952. He practised in Ontario in Gananoque, Alexandria Bay and Renfrew while his main practice was located in Ottawa, where he worked well into his 70s. Eventually, his sons both joined his practice.
His trailblazing was evident early in his career. He was the first health-care practitioner to treat sports injuries, he introduced ultrasound to Ottawa, he pioneered moiré photography for diagnosing curvature of the spine and he learned acupuncture in the early 1970s, long before it became widely accepted.
While his profession was important to him, so was the rest of his life. He pursued downhill skiing with a vengeance, fashioning his own metal edges a decade before they became standard equipment. He was also way ahead when it came to safety, making all of us wear helmets on the slopes as far back as the 1960s. He continued enjoying the sport well into his 80s, stopping only after a second stroke left him too weak to ski.
And he was among the first in Ottawa to learn and teach scuba diving, a pursuit that allowed him to assist in the development of the Ottawa Police diving squad. On many occasions, he would be picked up in a squad car from his office to help police search for or rescue accident victims. "I'm glad to help," he would often say.
Bud loved to fly through life – literally. Within hours of her arrival in Canada, he took Reynecke aboard a small airplane for a tour of the Kingston area. Bud was also a glider pilot, and the two enjoyed many hours of flying when the ski slopes were closed during the off-season in the 1940s and 1950s.
He wrote a book to help new doctors of chiropractic avoid losing money, he owned a sailboat-rental business and he tried – and failed – to get three personal hovercrafts off the ground. He was an avid do-it-yourselfer. His pursuits weren't always successful, but they were always fun.
Bud was called energetic by some, frenetic by others. We just knew him as Dad. Thanks for showing us how to live, Dad.
Dirk Keenan is Bud's son.