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Kessler, Douglas Keith
Pittsford: At age 83 died on October 7, 2015. He was born in Boonville, NY. He was educated at Oswego State, received a B.S. and Masters in Technology. In 1963 he was married to Sandra Schoeneck Kessler who passed away in 2005. They had 3 boys together. He leaves behind his children, Hans, Joel (Kelly) and Eric (Diane). He also leaves behind a dear loved friend and partner, Fran Wittig; 6 grandchildren, Drew, Elizabeth, Acadia, Merrick, River and Sailor; brother, Lynn; sisters, Rea and Donna; along with numerous close family, friends and relatives.
Doug served in the Army following WWII. When he returned home, he taught Mechanical Drawing and Shop at Pittsford High School. He also taught graduate classes at RIT. Doug coupled his passion of teaching with another lifetime interest, skiing. He founded the Colonial Mountaineers Ski Club for high school students, making their first cross country skis by screwing sneakers to skis. He was the founder of the Monroe County Ski League of which he served as Chairman of Section 5 of NYS. The league included cross country and alpine skiing.
As an avid lover of the outdoors, Doug spent a lifetime gardening, hunting and working with horses but he was best known for making friends and bringing a smile to people’s faces. He was always there to help fix anything at his workshop.
Calling hours, Sunday 3-6 PM at Richard H. Keenan Funeral Home, 7501 Pittsford Palmyra Road (Egypt location, Fairport). Funeral Mass, Monday 10 AM at St. Catherine of Sienna Church (Mendon). Private burial. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to Serenity Hospice House, 1278 Brace Rd., Victor, NY 14564 who provided him with loving support and service at the end of his life.
Comments
2 responses to “Kessler, Douglas Keith”
There is so much that I could say but all things that the family and Doug’s friends already know.
I only knew him for a short time and cared for him at Serenity House. What a Beautiful Spirit he has.
When I walked in his room he would stretch out his hand for me to hold it and say hello, with that wonderful smile. I have been truly blessed by our meeting.
God Bless all of us and help us through this time. I know that you will all miss him. We sure will at Serenity, he made us smile and brought much light into our lives. Thank you for sharing this wonderful man.
We are all here for your family if you need to talk or share stories.
May God hold you all and help you through this time.
Thank you all again for sharing Doug and just being great people.
Cathy
To the family of Coach Kessler,
I graduated from Sutherland in 1971. While there, I took Mechanical Drawing from Mr. Kessler and was also on his ski team. He was my life inspiration-he never pushed us to be the best, just to do our best. In those days, if we finished a drawing project early, we could leave to go to another shop class and work on our projects there. Once, in a hurry to get to metalworking, I turned in my Mech. draw project. Coach said “Pete, wait, work on this”. Grabbing another drawing from the pile, I said “look, mine’s better than this one”. Coach said “yes it is, but you can do better”. I went on to a career in tool making and never did anything just good enough-I always did the best I could, hearing Coach’s words. My daughter is an English teacher in Brockport and my son is now in college studying engineering. I have shared this story with them from an early age, and they too have always done their best. Thank you Mr. Kessler.
Regarding the sneakers screwed to the XC skis-back when I was on the team, Coach bought Army surplus 10th Mtn.Division downhill skis by the crate. We took these to the wood shop, sawed them down to the width of XC skis and then screwed our sneakers on them.
Coach Kessler’s lessons have stayed with me all my life. He was an amazing guy. I pray that he goes in peace and someday I hope to see him in heaven-I’ll tell him how his lessons have improved two generations and maybe we’ll ski together again.
Pete Hidley