Keck, Marvin Rosefield, 1895-1971

Marvin Rosefield Keck, (1895-1971) was a musician who served in World War I in Admiral Niblack’s Flagship Band of the Mediterranean Fleet on the Flagship Olympia . Following World War I, Keck worked for the United States Postal Service and participated in many musical endeavors in South Dakota.

Marvin Rosefield Keck was born in Odebolt, Iowa, but moved with his family to South Dakota in 1910. He graduated from Brookings High School and attended South Dakota State University. In 1914, Keck purchased his trombone and was soon playing with the State College Band in Brookings, South Dakota.

In 1917, Keck enlisted in the United States Navy, was stationed at Gibraltar and assigned to Admiral Niblack’s Flagship Band of the Mediterranean Fleet on the Flagship Olympia . According to an American Legion Post #22 letter of support for Keck’s nomination of Civil Servant of the Year, Keck and the Navy band “entertained English, French and American hospitals and the larger ships of the Allies.” After the armistice, during the summer of 1919, Keck’s fleet was sent to the Adriatic Sea to sweep for mines and the band played concerts in the Balkan States and Italy. Later in 1919, the Flagship Olympia was sent to the Black Sea to inspect ports of Asia Minor and the band played concerts in Constantinople and many other ports. In the late fall of 1919, Keck was discharged from service after 3 years.

On December 12, 1920, Keck married Ethel Johnson. They were the parents of three sons: Roger, Russell and James. They moved to Onida, South Dakota in 1921 and Keck served as the Register of Deeds for four years and Justice of the Peace for six years. While living in Onida, Keck organized a band called Keck's Kornet Kids for children ages 4 to 15.

The Kecks moved to Rapid City in 1934, and Keck served as a member of the police force for one year before opening a dry cleaning business, which he ran until 1938, when he went to work for the Post Office on May first that year. During his twenty-five years of service to the United States Postal Service, he designed a "Letter Drop Scoop" and served as Acting Postmaster from December 30, 1960 to April 1, 1961. He retired on December 29, 1963. He was very involved with the Civil Service Board and received in 1959, the area’s Annual Civil Servant of the Year Award.

Music remained important to Keck throughout his life. He played the trombone, bugle and drum. In South Dakota, he directed the South Dakota State American Legion Band for 34 years as well as the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Band. He was a member of the Rapid City Municipal Band for nearly 30 years and he played with the Rapid City Symphony Orchestra as well. Keck also directed bands in Onida and Gettysburg, and the 709th Engineers Band. He frequently played bugle for military funerals and composed “Black Hills White House March” when President Calvin Coolidge spent a summer in Black Hills.

Keck was also a member of the American Legion and served as a Commander of the American Legion in Rapid City.

Keck died on December 14, 1971 at the age of 76. Ralph W. Smith, at a concert given in his memory, stated that Keck, “in an extraordinary fashion, served his country, his community, his God, his church, and his family.”

Bibliography:

American Legion Post #22. Civil Servant of the Year, 1959 Nomination Form.

Obituaries, not attributed to a source.

Smith, Ralph W. “Annual Winter Concert dedicated to the Memory of Marvin Keck,” Rapid City Symphony Orchestra, January 16, 1972.

From the guide to the Marvin Rosefield Keck papers, Bulk, 1916-1920, 1916-1972, (Independence Seaport Museum, J. Welles Henderson Archives and Library)