Robert John Keiber was, by every sense of the word, a “Renaissance Man.”
Born in Kearny, N.J., on Jan. 21, 1944, to Helen and Jack Keiber, he started his love for the arts at a very young age, doodling on everything, much to the chagrin of the nuns at Saint Stephen’s Elementary School.
Robert continued his artistic journey starting with an Arts BFA from East Carolina University where he became president of the Sigma Nu Fraternity, met the love of his life Sherry Verner and finished up with a Master’s Degree in Communications from Chapel Hill, N.C.
Once graduated, Robert became a producer/director at WETA, Washington, D.C., then ran the radio department as a professor at Shaw University, and began acting in plays at the Raleigh Little Theatre, before moving on to New York City where he ultimately raised his family in the Warwick/Greenwood Lake, New York area.
In NYC, Robert landed a position heading the award-winning, media communication department at Rockefeller University, started his own theater company in the West Village and acted in more than a hundred commercials. This ultimately landed him a recurring role as the original character “Kit” on the popular soap opera, “All My Children.”
Robert also became the curator for the art galleries at Berkeley College NYC, where he next resided as a professor of media before moving up to Milford, Pa., to become the executive director of the Black Bear Film Festival.
Throughout his life he continued to paint, write books, screenplays, popular radio songs, plays, act in films and, of course, his greatest gift to the world, inspiring wayward souls.
But to us he was just our loving father and our biggest fan.
Robert is survived by Sherry Keiber, his two grandchildren Theodora and Declan, and his three sons Christian, Cameron and Clayton, all following in their father’s foot steps as artists.
Robert died on Oct. 18, 2021.
A celebration of his life in art is planned for a future date.