Los Angeles County
Biographies
MARK KEPPEL
For a quarter of a century the Los Angeles schools were under the supervision of Mark Keppel, who placed them on a par with the best in the country and whose accomplishments were excelled only by his endowments. An educator of high standing, a devout Christian and a cultured, refined gentleman, his administration was a material, intellectual and spiritual blessing to the teachers, pupils and schools under his charge and to his fellow citizens and his community. A native of California, he had a deep and abiding affection for his state and represented a family that was established here before the big gold rush of 1849. He was born April 11, 1867, a son of Garrett and Rebecca (Hurlburt) Keppel, the former a native of Holland, while the latter was born in the state of Missouri. Educated, enterprising and resourceful, they were pioneers of the finest type and were successful where many failed. By the long and arduous overland route they journeyed to the Pacific coast and reached Sacramento early in the decade of the ‘50s. Industrious and thrifty, Garrett Keppel soon acquired considerable land in Butte County and was accounted a prosperous and influential man. He also owned and operated several large ranches in Butte County, California, residing on the home ranch until called form this life, as did his wife, and both were buried there.
Reared on the home ranch, Mark Keppel attended the public schools of Butte County and then matriculated in the San Joaquin Valley College at Lodi, which awarded him the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Subsequently Philomath College of Oregon conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy, a distinction worthily bestowed. Dr. Keppel obtained his initial experience as an instructor in Yolo County, California, and soon afterward, in 1895 came to Los Angeles. He taught here for a short time before his election as superintendent of the county schools and so acceptable were his services that only death could have ended his tenure of that important office. Of him it was written: “In his work there were no loose ends; all were securely tied. He was the ideal mentor. Of perfect poise, pronounced ability, his influence was keenly felt. Outside the schools he was, without conscious effort, a very distinct civic influence, a vital force. He was always a partisan of wider intellectuality, modern in thought and action; the material improvement was not all he sought, for he had a high education sense of responsibility. He was a man of simplicity, dignity, fine feeling, and, above all, never bound by tradition. He preferred always to be himself, individual but never standardized.
“Mr. Keppel was the center of a large circle of friends, for he always had time for the friendly greeting, the kindly action. He fought for and own imperishable mental and moral treasures and left to his posterity a gift beyond all valuation.
“He worked for and succeeded in having passed through the board of education many laws which were most beneficial to the teachers of Los Angeles county schools. Many he formulated himself, knowing there was a great need for them, and some he adopted from the laws of great eastern schools, which were beginning to realize the fact that to the work of the teachers in our public schools the nation is always indebted for its worthwhile citizens, and that there is always a new generation coming on, and to meet changing conditions the old laws must be modified or, for the most part, supersede by new and often drastic laws. It was often commented upon by educators and citizens that many of the innovations as well as laws introduced by Mark Keppel were copied in some of the largest, finest and most up-to-date schools in the United States. He put Los Angeles county before the public all through his life there as superintendent of her schools.
“Many men in educational work have had vision, but they have lacked the keen practical insight of Mark Keppel, the ability to not only do things himself but to get others to do them. The history of men in the public life of any city is the history of that city and Mark Keppel’s life and work light up the history of Los Angeles. He died June 16, 1928.”
On the 15th of April, 1894, in Yolo, California, Dr. Keppel was married to Miss Mae Hubbard, whose parents were natives of Missouri. They came to California in the ‘50s, establishing their home at Yolo, and Mr. Hubbard was one of the pioneer educators of the state. Ester Keppel, the only child of this marriage was born in Yolo County and in young womanhood became the wife of Leo Claude Lewis, by whom she has a son and a daughter, Harold Keppel Lewis and Betty Mae Lewis. They are with their parents, who reside at 1354 ½ Bond Street, Los Angeles. Mrs. Lewis is a member of the Cosmos Club. Mrs. Keppel survived her husband for a little more than a year, responding to deaths summons July 24, 1929, and was laid to rest beside him in Inglewood Cemetery. A devout, helpful member of the First United Brethren Church, Dr. Keppel served as its treasurer and was a delegate to the general conference of the church. His name was also on the membership rolls of Los Angeles Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West, and his fraternal affiliations were with the Knights of Maccabees and the Woodmen of the World. He gave his political allegiance to the Republican Party and in matters of citizenship was loyal, progressive and public-spirited. His life was symmetrical and complete, fraught with the accomplishment of much good, and at the age of sixty-one years he was removed from his early sphere of usefulness, leaving behind him a memory that is cherished by all who were privileged to know him.
Transcribed
By: Michele Y. Larsen on November 7, 2012.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V,
by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 413-415,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles,
Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Michele
Y. Larsen.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES