"Just as Charles Charlemagne was the tallest man in Europe in 800 AD and therefore had to be named the first holy Roman emperor, so too was Bob Keiter the tallest man on the Amherst campus in the 1950s-or so he appeared to all of his admirers," said Howell. "So, naturally, he was our emperor too-and what a great guy. He had a magnificent character, even as a young man … the rest of us were still working on ours. [S]ome of us failed."
Keiter, a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, roomed with Howell for three out of his four years. "We lived together in a unit, we had parties together, we socialized together," said Keiter. While Keiter claimed Alpha Delta Phi to be a quiet fraternity, he said he wouldn't call it an intellectual exercise, but at the same time said it wasn't anti-intellectual. "Robert Frost came over and talked to us once," he said.
Lasting benefits
Keiter swam for the College, and reaped several awards in his four years. He was the 1957 NCAA Div. I 50-yard freestyle champion and captain of the swim team in his senior year. He was also a recipient of the "Tug" Kennedy Award for swimming and diving. Today Keiter remains an active swimmer.
Keiter majored in American Studies and said he enjoyed the mentoring of the famed historian professor Henry Steel Commager. Keiter focused his thesis on Huey Long and his role in swaying President Franklin Roosevelt's opinions further to the left.
After he graduated, Keiter attended Harvard Business School. Keiter admitted that upon entering the school, he "didn't know an asset from a liability." However, he said his liberal arts education taught him how to think, be rational and how to write well. "In business, if you can write well, you can excuse a lot of sins," he said. "It's a really effective form of communication. If you can write well, you can usually get your way."
After business school, Keiter was unsure of his professional plans. He spent three years in the army before joining Banker's Trust Co. He spent the next 11 years in investment research at Banker's. Then he took a chance and began working with a start-up investment company, Jennison Associates, in New York City, where he managed corporate pension funds, endowments and mutual funds. "[The company began to grow,] "but two years after it started, the stock market collapsed, and I began wondering what I left Banker's Trust for," he said.
Fortunately, the company bounced back, and so did Keiter. Upon his retirement in the mid-90s, he was a Director and Executive Vice President at Jennison Associates in New York City.
Keiter has seen the investment world change drastically over the decades. "Technology has been a big change. Competition was nowhere near what it is today. In the '60s, the performance game started to rear its head," he recalled. "In the '70s, nothing happened. In the '80s, individuals came into the market for the first time." Keiter added that investment banking has become "more competitive and riskier" over the years.
Staying involved
Keiter is nearing the 10th anniversary of his retirement. Retirement life, however, has been interesting. "I have yet to wake up any morning and not know what to do with myself," he said.
Outside of investment banking, Keiter has been active in many aspects of the community. Keiter serves as trustee at churches, community service organizations and academic institutions. At both Wheaton College and the Walnut Hill School he served as president of board.
Keiter has kept in touch with the transformations the College has undergone over the decades. He believes that Amherst is "a much better college" than it once was, the most significant improvement being the College's becoming co-educational. "[I] opposed co-education when it first came along," Keiter said. "[I was] being a dope … I was president of my class then and had classmates send in letters to the trustees against coeducation. I was a little youthful-I've matured since then!"