The Spirit of the Alumni Food Drive: Remembering Bobby Keerins ‘73

The 40th annual Jesuit High School Alumni Food Drive takes place this week, bringing together friends and families to pack boxes, share breakfast, and deliver food boxes throughout the Portland metro area. This year, however, brings a noticeable absence: Bobby Keerins ‘73, who started the Alumni Food Drive and guided it for the past four decades, passed away in September. 

Longtime Alumni Food Drive participants might not immediately recognize his absence. He deflected credit and attention and had a habit of making himself scarce the day of the event. But behind the scenes, Bobby was the heart and soul of the food drive: leading fundraising efforts, solving logistical challenges, and working alongside Jesuit’s Alumni Director, Kathy Baarts, and the Alumni Food Drive committee. 

“Bobby will always be the energy of the food drive,” said longtime friend John Grout ‘71. “He still is.”

John was there in the early 1980s when Bobby convinced a group of his friends – many of them former J-High classmates – to join him at an old warehouse in industrial Northwest Portland to rebag flour, beans, and potatoes into 50 food boxes for St. Vincent de Paul families. 

Eventually, that act of service evolved into what the Jesuit Alumni Food Drive is today: two days of packing food boxes, followed by a delivery day that includes a community breakfast. This year, volunteers will deliver 2,700 food boxes.

The Alumni Food Drive grew thanks to Bobby’s tireless efforts soliciting donations from his vast network and forging partnerships with parishes, schools, and agencies. (His classmate David Brands ‘73 called Bobby “the human Rolodex.”) He spent his career in agricultural trading with Stu Follen ‘73, was an avid outdoorsman, and above all, a consummate connector. He took people out to lunch nearly every day, building relationships that he relied on to help him achieve his ultimate goal of serving as many people as possible. 

“He was unapologetic in his asks and made people feel good about helping,” said John Grout.

That spirit, according to Dave Kopra ‘73, captured the unspoken mission of the Food Drive: getting people involved and instilling the sense “that what you do for someone else matters.” By making it a joyful, community event, the Alumni Food Drive’s legacy is the generations of alumni, their children, and their grandchildren who return year after year, finding joy in serving others. 

Dave and his wife, Anne, have been lead volunteers for the Alumni Food Drive for more than 20 years. Dave met Bobby on the first day of football practice their freshman year at Jesuit (Bobby was the team manager), and immediately sensed his focus and determination.

“I always knew he would be good at whatever he did,” said Dave. “He was focused and determined, but also made us all laugh.”

Bobby’s relentlessness and optimism helped him weather the inevitable challenges of the Food Drive: snowstorms, missing food deliveries, and a pandemic, to name a few. One year, the forklift to unload the trucks didn’t arrive, so volunteers found one from a nearby construction project and persuaded the operators to drive it over to Jesuit. 

No matter the obstacle, Bobby remained steady, said Kathy Baarts. “Whenever I worried that there wouldn’t be enough drivers to deliver all of the food boxes, Bobby reminded me, ‘You gotta have faith.’”

Bobby’s faith was all about action. “He always wanted to do more and give more and help more people,” said David Brands. 

In addition to the Food Drive, Bobby served the community in myriad ways. He co-founded Camps for Kids, which sends local youth without the financial means to camps. His efforts to protect Oregon’s natural resources earned him the Northwest Guides and Anglers Association's Rainmaker’s Award. He and David Brands helped start the Catholic Schools Endowment Foundation, now called Ascend, that provides tuition assistance to families who want to send their children to Catholic schools.

His friends say that Bobby’s selflessness stemmed from his family and grew in high school. Brands recalled a formative experience, when a Jesuit scholastic took their class downtown to Burnside and the Blanchet House, an encounter that opened their eyes to the realities of poverty and reinforced the need for service. 

For Bobby, serving others was innate, and he was always on the lookout for those in need. On a walk through his Raleigh Hills neighborhood one day, it occurred to him that there were families close to his home experiencing food insecurity. Not long after, Beaverton School District became one of the Alumni Food Drive’s many partners. 

Even when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year, Bobby continued going into the office, said John Grout. He also kept working on the Food Drive. His friend Dave Kopra wouldn’t be surprised if some deliveries show up this week that Bobby brokered before his passing. 

In his final days, Bobby urged his friends not to slow down – to keep working and do more for others. 

Bobby’s remarkable energy and work ethic will be impossible to replace, but his friends and the Alumni Food Drive volunteer network are carrying his legacy forward. As food costs continue to rise, as well as the number of people facing food insecurity, the need to serve the community is greater than ever. Working in collaboration with Lincoln High School, alumni will deliver 2,700 food boxes to families from Southwest Washington to Salem and from Gresham to the Oregon coast this year. Each box will be filled with nutritious food and lots of hope, to continue Bobby’s legacy of serving those who need help with faith and love.

When his classmates and friends return for this year’s Alumni Food Drive on December 18-20, they will undoubtedly feel the immeasurable loss of their larger-than-life friend and the gratitude for a life whose impact will stretch far beyond them.