Robert McKeag, Ph.D.

Robert A. McKeag died on May 6, 2025. He was one half of a set of twins born to Arthur and Lillian (Kobs) McKeag of Red Wing, Minnesota, on June 30, 1930. Robert found his interests and life work when he started attending several one-room rural schools that we don’t have anymore. He discovered that he enjoyed school and learning different things. He was going to be a teacher. When the family moved off the farm during the “Great Depression” of the 1930’s he attended village schools in Dundas, Minnesota and Dennison, Minnesota. He enjoyed those schools as well and when farm labor became scarce during the war he started as a farm laborer, moving to a farm in 1944 as a “hired hand” and returning home in September when school resumed, and the harvest was mostly finished. It was a pattern he was to follow for eight summers. In 1945 he discovered more to learn (he had already learned how to harness a team of horses and operate farm equipment) when farm labor was supplemented by German prisoners of war. He worked along side of the P.O.W.’s in the fields and learned new things, which he loved! The farmer he worked for could speak German, and the prisoners, 6-8 of them), could speak a little English so he found that there are things to be learned outside of school. Robert graduated from Northfield High School in 1949 and as usual, did far labor that summer and that fall he attended Winona State Teacher’s College (today it's called Winona State University) as a freshman.

1953 was a busy year for Robert. He received a bachelor’s degree and qualification as a teacher, he married a fellow student, Alice Harkness, and was almost immediately drafted into the U.S. Army. Robert and Alice were married for sixty-eight years when she died in 2021. The army experience was another situation where you learned a lot, not necessarily in school. He was trained at Camp Gordon in Georgia (infantry basic), Camp Pickett in Virginia (medic basic), Fort Sam Houston in Texas, and Fitzsimmons Army Hospital (medial specialist school). He then spent thirteen months in the Marshall Islands with Joint Task force Seven. This unit was in support American testing “Thermo-Nuclear Weapons” in bikini and Eniwetok.

After being released from the Army resumed the pattern of using summer work and the rest of the year for school (except he changed to use the summer for work and the rest of the time to TEACH school). He taught high school in places like Hayfield, Minnesota, Hibbing, Minnesota, and Hastings, Minnesota. At Hastings he started working with student teachers from places like UW River falls, St. Olaf College, and the University of Minnesota. That soon led to becoming a faculty member at the education college at UW-Oshkosh. Along the way, he earned a master’s degree from Winona State University, and later a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He continued to learn new things that different experiences offered. He retired from UW-Oshkosh after thirty years, and continued learning, this time from travel. Robert and Alice traveled extensively to Europe, North Africa, Middle East, and Asia. They also learned from travel in the United States, mostly to civil war battlefields and historical places. For quieter learning they used their cabin on Post Lake in Northern Wisconsin.

Robert and Alice raised three children and discovered that you can learn a lot from them also, probably things you cannot learn in a school.

Robert is survived by his children: Cynthia (Yoshio Tsukamoto), Timothy (Joby Bednarek), and Kevin (Pensri Vorapuhm). His grandchildren are Sarah (Chris) McKinney, Rebecca (Jon Scott), Yuji Tsukamoto, Michio Tsukamoto, and Matthew, Erin, and Ryan McKeag; and great-grandchildren Lucas and Megan McKinney. Robert was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Alice, his twin brother Richard, brothers John, Roderick, and William, along with aunts, uncles and cousins.

Robert has chosen to be cremated with no services or visitation. His urn will be placed in the Wikota Cemetery in Winona County, Minnesota. He was grateful for all the opportunities and things he learned himself.

• -- This obituary was written by Robert himself.