Building Legacies
Fred M. Keller Engineering Laboratories
Located on the Pew campus, near the Eberhard Center, the Fred M. Keller Engineering Laboratories Building focuses on providing engineering students with a living laboratory. It is an impressive 30,000 square foot, three story structure that is part of the Seymour and Esther Padnos College of Engineering and Computing. It was constructed to facilitate student project work and experiments. There are laboratories for instruction, research and shops to build the many projects necessary to complete an engineering degree. The project was completed in the fall of 2000 and opened with 553 students.
Fred M. Keller Sr. was a generous man born on St. Patrick's Day, 1910. He founded Paragon Die & Engineering in 1962. He received many awards, among them, Man of the Year by Junior Acheivment, the Outstanding United Methodist Philanthropist by the United Methodist Church in West Michigan and the Distinguished Service Award from Ferris State University. He was known for mentoring young people and provided funds for the Fred M. Keller Engineering Laboratories. Fred Keller passed away Sunday, June 27, 2004. His wife Bernedine, daughter, son, six grand-children, and four great grand-children survive him.
Edward Schalon, former chairman of the board of the Sealed Power Corporation (SPX Corporation) was also a major supporter for the Seymour and Esther Padnos College of Engineering and Computing. The Plastics and Metal Forming Lab in the Keller Engineering Laboratories is named for he and his wife Marcella. Mr. Schalon was a naval pilot in World War II AND A Champion golfer while a student at the University of Michigan. Eighty-eight year old Schalon died in December of 2008 in St. Joseph, Michigan.
Page last modified May 7, 2013
