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Joseph G. Keller

Glenmont, NY

1935

Interviewed at BPL on January 17, 2024 by Eric Bryant w/ Bill Ketzer & Tim Beebe present.

The son of German & Swiss immigrants and a U.S. Air Force veteran, Joe Keller was born in 1935 and grew up in Athens, NY. He moved to Glenmont in 1961 and immediately joined Selkirk Fire Co. 2, where he served as chief, commissioner, and in numerous other roles over the decades. He also enjoys permanent legend status for bringing the company’s ever-popular Flea Market to life every summer – an event he co-chaired for over 40 years.

While many know Joe from his six decades of active service as a firefighter, older folks in town also recognize him as owner/operator of the Mobil service station at the corner of Route 9W and Feura Bush Road at Bethlehem Center, a business he bought from John and Loretta Comstock and operated for more than 30 years.

Today, that intersection is virtually unrecognizable as the quaint, rural crossroads it was more than half century ago, but Joe’s Mobil still stands as a Sunoco station and Dunkin’ shop. The irony of this is not lost on our narrator, who told us his first business in Glenmont was also a Sunoco, one that unfortunately sat directly in the path of the planned Delmar Bypass, which opened after much political wrangling in December 1963.

Joe wowed BOHP with his photographic memory of the 9W corridor through Bethlehem, fire-fighting tales and vivid recollections of the families that brought Glenmont to life.

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