San Francisco County
Biographies
CARL KELLER,
M. D.
Dr. Carl Keller, ambulant proctologist and a leading exponent of his profession in San Francisco, was born in Coblenz, Germany, May 5, 1865, a son of Antone and Catherine (Nickeniz) Keller, who were lifelong residents of that city. The father engaged in the manufacture and sale of high grade wine and champagne and his establishment, opened in 1854, was noted for its fine vintages. Like his wife, he was a devout Catholic and their children were reared in that faith. They had four sons and eight daughters and eight children are now living. Two of the daughters, Magdalene and Regina, became nuns and are connected with convents at Dusselforf and Köln, Germany.
Dr. Carl Keller, the third in order of birth, also decided to take up religious work and after finishing his elementary education entered the Christian Brothers College at Coblenz. Later he attended seminaries in Belgium, France, Holland and Italy, spending the period from 1889 to 1891 in Rome, and from 1891 to 1894 was a student at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland. At Trier, Germany, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1894 and zealously served his church for eighteen years. His pastoral duties took him to Elston and Krakow, Missouri, and to other states of the Union and his final charge was at Centaur, St. Louis county, Missouri. In 1912 he withdrew from the priesthood, as his views did not harmonize with those of the Catholic prelates in Rome and he was unable to accept certain modernistic ideas not in conformity with the established doctrine as taught in the formularies of the church. His resignation, however, did not change his devotion to the church and its Christian teachings and he has always remained true to the Roman Catholic faith. Before taking up the study of theology he had served in the German Army as a volunteer of the Empress Augusta Regiment, a guard regiment, from which he was honorably discharged in 1886 as a petty officer, and in 1888 was appointed an inspector of military hospitals. At that time he was also interested in his father’s wine business.
After retiring from the priesthood Dr. Keller decided to become a physician and entered upon the study of medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. He took a four years’ course in the National University of Arts and Sciences, from which he was graduated June 17, 1916, with the highest honors in his class of forty-five, and was the only member of the class to secure an interneship (sic) in the St. Louis Hospital. Following this he became a government Physician at Molokai and Kauai, in the Hawaiian Islands, and after engaged in private practice at Honolulu, where he remained until 1918. He then came to San Francisco and has here followed his profession successfully for thirteen years, establishing an enviable reputation as an ambulant proctologist. He is identified with the Conservative Proctology Society of Medicine and was formerly a member of the board of health at Daly City, California. Throughout much of his life Dr. Keller has been a student, utilizing every opportunity to broaden his field of usefulness, and has augmented his scientific knowledge by postgraduate work in the medical department of Harvard University. At Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1903 he was made a citizen of this country and is thoroughly American in spirit and interests.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 3 Pages 270-274.
© 2008 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S SAN
FRANCISCO BIOGRAPIES