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Vernon Keel began a long career in journalism on his hometown newspaper just three miles from where the Wolf family was murdered twenty years before he was born. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota where he developed skills in legal and historical research. For more than thirty years, he taught media law and headed journalism and communication schools at South Dakota State University, The University of North Dakota, and Wichita State University.

Keel was active in the Society of Professional Journalists throughout his career, and was the first president of the Kansas Sunshine Coalition for Open Government.  He was elected president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1990 after serving for six years on the national accrediting council in journalism and mass communication.

In addition, he served on several national association committees and was on the William Randolph Hearst Foundation Steering Committee for many years.  He spent two sabbatical leaves at the University of Montreal, first in the communication department and then in the law school’s Center for Research on Public Law.  Most recently, he has taught at Regis University in Denver and in Colorado State University’s masters degree program in communication management at the Downtown Denver Center.

He and his wife, Bernadette, live in Denver.

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