John O’Keeffe passed away Nov. 21 at his home in Houston, Texas.

John was born Sept. 18, 1930, to Benjamin  O’Keeffe and Izola Ausmus O’Keeffe. He attended grade school in Fields, where his family owned a sheep ranch. The O’Keeffe family eventually moved their ranching operations to Burns, where John graduated from Burns Union High School in 1948. He was on the football team, boxing team, and played in the band. While in high school, he met the love of his life, Phyllis Hankins of Silvies, and they married in 1952. John served in the Army during the Korean War, and graduated from Oregon State College with dual degrees in mechanical engineering and mathematics.

Upon graduation, John went to work for Boeing in Seattle, Wash., and later worked on the Minuteman Project in Great Falls, Mont., Minot, N. D., and Cheyenne, Wyo. He was recruited by the space program in 1965 and moved his family to Houston, Texas. He worked on the Apollo Program, the Skylab Program, and the Space Shuttle Program in the field of spacecraft testing. In later years, he trained astronauts to use the Remote Manipulator System to capture and release satellites flown on the Space Shuttle. He retired with distinction from the space program in 1997.

John was a very caring husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.

John is survived by his wife, Phyllis; children, Colleen O’Keeffe Crawford, Dennis O’Keeffe, Daniel O’Keeffe, and Brian O’Keeffe; grandchildren, Brooks Crawford, Jacob O’Keeffe, and Travis O’Keeffe; and great-grandchildren, Lyle Crawford and Laurel Crawford; sisters, Eileen McVicker and Kathleen Lane, both of Portland,; and many nieces, nephews and in-laws.