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Contact Info
Home Town Cincinnati, Ohio
Last Address Paradise Valley, Arizona , United States Burial: Gate of Heaven Cemetery Montgomery, Hamilton County, Ohio
Date of Passing Mar 31, 2014
Location of Interment Gate of Heaven Cemetery - Montgomery, Ohio
Wall/Plot Coordinates Section 1, Lot 7008
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Naval Aviation Pilot Charles Humphrey Keating, Jr. WWII Naval Air Corps, F6F pilot
Military service: US Navy File No. 438150
(trained as fighter pilot, did not see combat, July 1943 to November 1945)
Charles Humphrey Keating, Jr. (December 4, 1923 – March 31, 2014) was an American athlete, lawyer, real estate developer, banker, financier, and activist best known for his role in the savings and loan scandal of the late 1980s.
Early life and military service: Keating was born on December 4, 1923, in Cincinnati, Ohio, into a devout Roman Catholic family. He was the son of Adele (Kipp) and Charles Humphrey Keating. He grew up in the Avondale and Clifton neighborhoods of that city. His younger brother William was born in 1927. Their father came from Kentucky and managed a dairy. Charles Keating, Sr. lost a leg in a hunting accident, and then fell into a long decline from Parkinson's disease around 1931, and was nursed by his wife until his death in 1964.
Keating began swimming at a Catholic summer camp and became passionately involved in the sport. He attended St. Xavier High School, where he was a good student, was on the swim team all four years, and also ran track and played football. In swimming he led the team to three Greater Catholic League championships, set several school records, was named all-state, and was captain of the team in his senior year. Keating graduated from St. Xavier in 1941.
After one semester at the University of Cincinnati in fall 1941, Keating left because of poor grades, although he advanced to the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships in 1942, finishing sixth in the 200 yard breaststroke. He enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve in 1942 and was on active duty in the Navy from 1943-1945. He trained in the Naval Air Corps to become a carrier-based night fighter pilot flying F6F Hellcats.
During World War II, Keating was stationed in the U.S., sometimes at Banana Creek in Florida, and flew Hellcats to armed services swimming meets. He narrowly escaped serious injury one night at Naval Air Station Vero Beach when he neglected to lower the landing gear on his Hellcat and wrecked the plane in an unexpected belly landing. Due to additional training on new intercept methods and the vagaries of squadron transfers, the war ended before he could be deployed to any combat theater.
Education and swimming: Keating was ready to return to college after finishing his Navy service in 1945. His abilities as a swimmer made him an attractive recruit, despite his having dropped out earlier. He cut a deal with the University of Cincinnati wherein it would accept for academic credit much of his Navy service, then he would take six months of liberal arts courses before entering its law school. Keating won the 200-yard breaststroke at the Ohio Intercollegiate Conference championship in 1945.
Keating was discharged from inactive duty status in the Naval Reserve June 17, 1959.
Other Comments:
As a young naval pilot, Charles H. Keating Jr. was in an especially fine mood one evening as he prepared to land his Hellcat fighter plane at an airfield in south Florida.
Eagerly anticipating a date with an attractive woman, Keating had deliberately stayed close to the field as he flew the night training maneuvers. He had quietly arranged to be the first in his squadron to land so he could get off duty as fast as possible.
With a trumpet solo by Harry James blaring from his radio, Keating steered the fighter plane into what he thought would be a routine landing. There was just one problem: He had forgotten to put the wheels down.
"The (control) tower was telling me: 'Your wheels are up,' but all I could hear was old Harry," Keating recalled recently in an interview at his office here.
Though the ensuing belly-flop landing destroyed the Hellcat, Keating survived by jumping from the craft while it was still skidding down the landing strip. Rescue workers found the young aviator sitting on his parachute at the edge of the runway, his expensive plane in flames nearby.
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Another Keating, grandson Petty Officer 1st Class Charlie Keating IV, a Navy SEAL, was killed at age 31 in combat with ISIS in Iraq in 2016. The younger Keating was posthumously awarded the rank of Chief Petty Officer and was buried with his new rank.
