Jeff Keller manages the USO at Portland International Airport. It's a place for traveling military folks to relax.
Jeff loves his work there. He also loves doing volunteer work to help veterans. Jeff is a Gold Star dad.
"Needless to say it changed our lives pretty drastically, instantaneously and you know it’s the last thing you expect to do is bury your child at 45," said Keller.
The Beaverton man lost his son in August of 2012. Andrew was killed by enemy fire on a hillside in Afghanistan.
He was 22 years old. The Keller family's life spiraled. It left Jeff, his wife and younger son devastated.
"Good life you know, good life. And Andrew died and it just -- at first I was lost. At first you go through this feeling like 'what am I supposed to be doing, what am I doing here?"
What Keller eventually did was end a lucrative career in the food service industry, and start giving back.
"With whatever time I’ve got left here, whether it’s a day or 30 years, I’m gonna make a difference, or try to anyway," said Keller.
That difference? Being of service to a community that supports him, his wife and surviving son. That community starts in Beaverton, where a traffic circle is a permanent memorial to Andrew Keller.
Jeff joined the work of Tribute to Honor, started as a way to help 9/11 first responders, but then transitioned to help local veterans.
With that organization he's taken on a companion dog program for veterans. Marlowe just went to the first female recipient, a Marine named Jaime Ackley. Keller is also a leader with Get Wet for a Vet, that puts on a big golf tournament during the rainy season, and a dinner gala that raises money for veteran causes.
The two non-profits have raised $250,000 this year that goes to help veterans.
He also works with Honor Flights, that gets war vets to Washington D.C., to connect with their history and other vets. Keller is making a difference, in honor of his son Andrew, and others, too.
"I'm gonna try and make a difference like my son did and was so important to Andrew as he continues to do today and John Pelham does and Keaton Coffey does, as Tyler Troyer does Riley Long does; all these local kids that wrote that blank check and cashed it for the whole thing, that's why I'm doing what I'm doing."