Dan Keenan understood from a young age that he wanted to work as a funeral director like his father. Dan looked forward to the day when he could take over the business that his father had begun in 1923 after graduating from Christian Brothers Academy and the New York School of Embalming and Restorative Arts. Dan’s mother, Josephine, left the firm after his father died suddenly in 1942 at the age of 49. Dan completed his apprenticeship at the Abbey Funeral Home in New York City before serving in the Army for two years during the Korean War.
Dan purchased the Norman E. Dascher Funeral Home in 1992, an old Albany institution dating back to 1893 and initially located on the corner of Arch and Broad Streets.
In 1957, Dan married Theresa “Joyce” (Dembski) Keenan. Joyce taught art at Albany High School until she retired in 1980. She rejoined Dan’s company after retirement, functioning as vice president-secretary and utilising her background and expertise in cosmetology, presentation, decorating, and design. Dan and Joyce raised two daughters: Marie P. Keenan, a funeral director who joined the family business in 1990 and succeeded her father as president when he retired in 2001, and Terri DeMaria, a Bethlehem School District primary school teacher who retired in 2017.
Dan and Tedi DeMaria, as well as Liam and Aine Tobin, are their four grandchildren.
Dan is a member of the New York State Funeral Directors Association and its past president, as well as the National Funeral Directors Association, Normanside Country Club, and the Helderberg Lake Community Association. He is a communicant of St. James Church, where he has served as a trustee for more than 35 years, and a long-time supporter and former council president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
Dan was awarded the Catherine McAuley Award by the St. Peter’s Hospital Foundation in 2004 in recognition of his vision, direction, and assistance in strengthening the mission of St. Peter’s Hospital and the work of the Religious Sisters of Mercy. Dan is a Notre Dame football lover as well as a St. Louis Cardinals baseball fan.
Dan and Joyce are both involved in neighbourhood activities, particularly the Delaware Avenue Neighbourhood Association and the Friends of Norman’s Kill Farm. Joyce received the Thomas J. Senchyna Neighbourhood Service Award from the Neighbourhood Resource Centre in 2002 in recognition of her bold vision and great leadership in improving the quality of life in the Delaware Area Neighbourhood.