Beat Guido Keel

Beat “Bert” Keel passed away peacefully on Tuesday November 18, surrounded by his family and buoyed by his faith.

Bert was born in Rebstein, Switzerland on March 15, 1930. After attending primary school in the mountains, where his lifelong love of the outdoors first took root, he went on to study at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH). It was there that another defining trait emerged – an intellectual curiosity and devotion to learning that remained with him throughout his life. It was the weaving together of these two callings, nature and knowledge, that brought him to Minnesota in 1956 where he met the great love of his life, Sarah - a remarkable nurse from County Carlow. Bert and Sarah were married for 60 years, raising 6 children together, and spoiling their 10 grandchildren with an endless stream of riddles, adventures, and home cooked meals.

Bert loved life. He loved to read, especially formidable volumes across a wide range of languages. He loved to hike and camp, once towing (by canoe) a picnic table across a Boundary Waters lake to improve an island campsite. He delighted in gardening, particularly when plot preparation involved stubborn stumps, immovable stones, or some confounding combination of the two. He loved yard work and home repair, whether tending to his own, helping his children with theirs, or volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. Professionally, he was an electrical engineer for over four decades, working with Remington-Rand and its descendants, including Univac, Control Data, and Seagate. He arrived in Minnesota at the very dawn of modern computing, having never touched a computer before, and quickly found himself at the heart of a revolutionary era. His inventive spirit, relentless curiosity, and collaborative approach, grounded in applied physics, chemistry, and engineering, fueled a remarkably creative career, yielding more than 30 patents in data storage and retrieval.

He loved a good card game, a fire of any kind, and almost any form of activity. Until time and gravity finally slowed him down, he was always on the go – running multiple marathons, scaling hundreds of mountains, and rowing thousands of miles on “the erg.” He coached soccer and hockey despite never having played either himself, and remained a committed rink flooder until climate change finally won out. Second only to his devotion to Mom was his profound love for his children and the special joy he found in his grandchildren. His Easter bonnets were legendary. His tree houses were feats of imaginative engineering and inspired recycling. He built an Olympic-grade toboggan run of near-mythic proportions — thrilling and terrifying generations in equal measure. And his pumpkin trebuchet? Well, that one never quite came together. He forever carried Switzerland in his heart, keeping his homeland alive through stories, memories, and a deep love of its mountains, landscapes, and way of life.

Bert was welcomed into Heaven by Sarah; his parents, Fidel & Rosa Keel; and his siblings Richard, Tom, Yvonne and Hildegard. He is survived by his sister, Mary-Therese; his children, Karl (Mary), Sean (Michelle Moore), Fiona, Markus (Janet), Paul (Suzanne), Sioḃán (Joseph Marquez); and his grandchildren Emma, Peter, Rose, Luke, Taidhgin, Aine, Kieran, Deaglan, Bridget, and Ronan.

A visitation will be held at Carondelet Village in St Paul on Friday, November 28, 2025 beginning at 11:00 am, followed by a noon mass, and a lunch reception. Mass will be live streamed, with a link posted here soon.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Habitat for Humanity, the Franciscan Brothers of Peace, or your local food shelf.

To livestream the service please click here