Joel Keehn, a New Paltz resident and Director of Special Projects at Consumer Reports, died Saturday, November 16th, as the result of a fall while hiking near his beloved Minnewaska State Park. He was 64 years old.
Joel loved his family, and the many he considered family. He had the strength to stay open to the world, to be touched again and again by its beauty and sorrow. Always gentle and generous, he found ways to make things better than they were before. He was joyous, safe, smart and funny. He was Beautiful.
He was born in New Delhi, India on May 16th, 1960, the sixth and youngest child of Martha McKee Keehn and Thomas B. Keehn. He graduated from PS 101, Russell Sage Junior High School, and Hillcrest High School, all in Queens, NY, where he grew up at the longtime family home in Forest Hills.
Joel graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, MN in 1983, and received a Masters Degree from the Columbia School of Journalism in 1987. It was at Carleton that he met his wife of 41 years, Joan Combellick. At Columbia he was awarded a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship for 1987, which he used to support his and Joan’s travels in Thailand, where they worked with refugees along the Thai-Cambodia border. He worked at Consumer Reports Magazine, first as a writer and then as an editor for 34 years.
Joel convened many joyful and useful gatherings of friends and family, where he nourished those he loved with plentiful and delicious food. He was looking forward to becoming a grandfather this year. In addition to his wife Joan, Joel is survived by his three children, Harper, Lucy, and Juna, their partners Jacq, Carl, and Tal; his five siblings, Deborah, Jonathan, David, Benjamin and Adam Keehn, and countless friends and colleagues who mourn his untimely passing. Memorial plans will be forthcoming.
In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that donations be made to Reaping The Harvest, a scholarship fund for farmworker graduates, The Tenant and Homeowners Association, a housing rights organization based in Providence RI (please designate the donation “For the THA”), or the Wolf Creek Community Alliance, an environmental action group important to his family.
Join the family! 
