Van Keuren family | Van Keuren lineage
Robert Steven van Keuren, the oldest child of
was born on July 24, 1942, in Bedford, Indiana. In 1946 his father left the family and he moved with his mother and siblings back to St Paul, Minnesota, where his parents had been born. He grew up in the home of his grandmother, Sophie Anne Jensen Kerker. He attended St Columba Grade School, St Thomas Military Academy, Nazareth Hall Preparatory Seminary, and St Paul Seminary, where he earned a B.A. in Latin and Philosophy. In the seminary he studied to become a Catholic priest.After teaching grade school two years in St Paul, he went back to college at Syracuse University to get a B.Mus. in Music Education. He then taught music in Wisconsin for two years, and New York state for six years.
In 1978 he returned to the Twin Cities to take an entry level job as a computer programmer at Progressive Management Services. Two years later he was hired by UserWare International and moved to San Diego, working there for seven and a half years. In 1988 he began doing consulting work for Touch Technologies and other companies, and became MIS Manager for Huntington Mechanical Labs in 1990. He worked for AST Computer for ten months, and was hired in July, 1994, as a senior programmer analyst for Action Instruments in San Diego.
Robert has no children.
Robert Steven has had many hobbies. Science was an early one, along with stamp collecting. Reading branched out early into science fiction.
Music always played a large part in his life. In grade school he sang in church and school choirs and learned piano. In high school at St Thomas, he sang in the Glee Club for four years, and in the seminary he took part in a number of the choirs and scholae, as well as learning to play guitar.
For ten years, music was his livelihood, as he attended Syracuse University and taught music full time, including work as music and liturgy director for several parishes. Liturgical music continued to be a lifelong involvement with parishes and other groups even after he switched to computer programming.
Computer programming was another avid interest, developing into a career.
In 1992 he was dragged into square dancing, which grew into a passion as he learned Basic, Mainstream, Plus, Advanced 1 and 2, and in 1995, Challenge level 1 as well as beginning square dance calling.
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