Researching Kenneth Keating

A native of Lima, New York, Keating graduated from Genesee Wesleyan Seminary (1915), the University of Rochester (1919), and Harvard Law School (1923). Keating practiced law in Rochester and became active in Republican Party politics.

During World War I, Keating served with the Student Army Training Corps at the University of Rochester. He joined the United States Army for World War II, and was commissioned as a major. He served in India as head of the U.S. office that managed the Lend-Lease Program for the China Burma India Theater and was promoted to colonel before the end of the war. Keating remained in the Organized Reserve Corps after his wartime service, was promoted to brigadier general in 1948, and continued to serve until retiring in 1963.

In 1946, Keating ran successfully for a U.S. House seat from a Rochester-based district. He was reelected five times, and served from 1947 to 1959. During his House tenure, Keating developed a reputation as a moderate on many issues, which he combined with conservative positions on Cold War anticommunism and the fight against organized crime. In 1958, he ran successfully for a U.S. Senate seat from New York, and he served from 1959 to 1965. Keating was an advocate of desegregation, and played a key role in breaking the filibuster that enabled passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Keating was one of many moderate to liberal Republicans who refused to endorse conservative Republican Barry Goldwater for president in 1964. Defeated for reelection by Robert F. Kennedy in 1964, Keating practiced law briefly, then won a seat on the New York Court of Appeals in the 1965 elections. He served until 1969, when he resigned to become U.S. Ambassador to India. He served in India until 1972, when he resigned and returned home to campaign for the reelection of President Richard Nixon. In 1973, Nixon appointed Keating U.S. Ambassador to Israel, and Keating remained in this position until his death.