Richard Keelor, Ph.D., has served at all levels in the health promotion and physical fitness profession including ten years as Director of Program Development for the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. In 2008, he was awarded the Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award (click on 2008 box in the middle of the page).
He began his career as football and wrestling coach of Beverly Hills High School where in 2010 he was the first to be honored with the Beverly Hills High School Athletic Alumni’s Polaris Award for his lasting contribution to the school’s championship athletic program.
Richard has conducted more than 200 regional and national fitness and health promotion clinics, including four White House Sport Medicine Conferences. He has appeared on the "Today Show" and "Good Morning America" and was awarded the U.S. Jaycees Healthy American Fitness Award in 1984.
Richard is President & CEO of Health Designs International, a consulting and training organization specializing in building healthy communities and organizations. His interest in personal well-being led him to incorporate meditation as a fundamental health skill to empower groups and individuals achieve emotional balance and spiritual awareness.
“Meditation can open and balance the body’s natural healing powers, he says. "It serves as a catalyst to integrate mind, body and spirit.”
He has written a book of his own mediations called Holy Moments. An accomplished player of the Native American wood flute, he has produced a CD of music and guided meditations.
Following his government service, Keelor joined the Campbell Soup Company as president of its National Institute for Health/Fitness and general manager of a new Campbell's business unit. He led the development and implementation of the Campbell Soup’s employee health/fitness program, which now has had more than 25 years of success. He also served as president and CEO of the Sugar Association.
Keelor has a long interest in geriatric physiology and played a lead roll in amendments to the federal Older Americans Act, which provide for increased opportunities for the elderly to attain and maintain appropriate physical activity. He has testified at congressional hearings and before federal agencies on matters related to the role of physical activity in health promotion and disease prevention. Keelor also addressed the World Health Organization’s Tenth Annual Conference for the Prevention of Chronic Disease.
As co-founder of Be Active America, Keelor serves as one of the lead faculty in advocacy training workshops provided to educators, recreational professionals, and to business, industry and government officials. These workshops assist professional groups and individuals to better communicate with media, state, local and federal elected officials in order to advance the nation’s Healthy People 2020 goals. He was also the primary consultant in development of Be Active North Carolina, the first statewide initiative to promote grassroots physical activity advocacy.
Keelor holds both a bachelor's and master's degree in Health, Physical Education, and Recreation from California State University at Long Beach, where he was Athlete of the Year in 1959, captain of the intercollegiate football team. In 1960, he won the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate wrestling championship. He received his Ph.D. in Physical Education, with a minor in Business Administration, from the University of Southern California in 1974. He resides in McLean, Va. with his wife, Carolyn. He has three adult children and six granddaughters.
Dr. Richard Keelor receiving the 2008 PCPFS Lifetime Achievement Award from PCPFS chairman John Burke.