Bennie C Keel

DECEMBER 26TH, 1934 – JANUARY 11TH, 2026

Bennie Carlton Keel, 91, a husband, father, writer, gardener, avid Florida State Seminoles football fan and renowned archeologist died on Sunday, January 11th, 2026, of complications from pneumonia.Bennie was born in 1934 in Panama City, Florida where he grew up and graduated from Bay High School in 1952. He served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1957 as a military policeman for the 11th Airborne Division. Archeology became his passion as he attended FSU, completing his BS in 1960 and his MS in 1965, earning his PHD at Washington State University in 1972.

Bennie Keel held several positions in his archeology career. From 1961 to 1963, he worked at the Town Creek Indian Mound in North Carolina. In 1963, he was the senior staff archeologist at the Research Laboratories of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina. From 1973 to 1976 he was an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. He joined the National Park Service in 1976 as Chief of Interagency Archeological Services Atlanta; later, in 1980, he moved to Washington D.C. to be the Departmental Consulting Archeologist and National Park Service Assistant Director Archeology. In 1990, Bennie transferred to the Tallahassee, Florida division of the National Park Service to hold the title of Regional Archeologist and Center Director until he retired in 2008.

With Cherokee Archeology as his focus, Bennie made many significant lasting contributions. Of note is his work on a Memorandum of Agreement for the land exchange between the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. He also worked on passing legislation and regulations for the preservation of cultural heritage. He is known for authoring a book entitled “Cherokee Archeology, A Study of the Appalachian Summit”.

Dr. Bennie Keel received several awards for his outstanding work in archeology. He was named a 1960 Fellow in the Social Sciences at FSU. He received a Department of the Interior Super Service Award in 1979. In 1993, the Register of Professional Archeologists gave him their Distinguished Achievement Award. On his retirement, in 2008, he was awarded the Southeastern Archeological Conference’s Lifetime Award. The greatest of all, was his 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for American Archaeology.

Bennie was preceded in death by his first wife, Alice Ruth Coutant Keel, and their son, Steven Keel, along with his second wife, Ida Smith and his sister, Charlene Keel. He is lovingly remembered by his son, Michael Keel, Michael’s wife, Joanie, their daughter Zoe; his third wife Elaine Howell, her daughter and husband Nicole and Lindsay Green, their two daughters Daphne Goff and Lilly Green; his stepson Chris Smith, Chris’s wife, Susanne, their two sons, Jackson and Henry; Alice’s sisters, Bennie’s two sisters-in-law, Betty Percy

and Issy Moskowitz; Bennie’s brother and sister, James Michael Keel and Rebecca Keel, James’s children, Bennie’s niece and nephew, Keli Mcintosh and Matt Keel, Matt’s wife Ginny and their children, Talon, Maxim, Brody, Zeke, Eli; Bennie’s deceased sister Charlene’s daughter, Rachel Giordano and her granddaughter, Alexandra Nieves.

The family wants to thank the Quincy staff of Big Bend Hospice for their exceptional care.

The date for Bennie Keel’s online memorial service will be announced once planned.