Keith Krebs:
CLASS OF 1975
Marathon High SchoolClass of 1975
Marathon, FL
University of Florida - EngineeringClass of 1980
Gainesville, FL
Keith's Story
Life
After high school, I attended UF from 1975 to 1980, receiving a BS in Electrical Engineering in 1980. I lived in Houston, TX from 1980-1985, working as an electrical engineer for Brown & Root. My family and I moved to Atlanta in 1985, I'm still there. In Atlanta I worked for Simons Engineering until 2000. To get off the road I went to work for Lucent. Well, that didn't work...(laid off) so I went back to AMEC, (Simons under new ownership). I again became weary of much travel so I have changed employers twice more since then to try to reduce the extensive time spent out of town on start-ups. Christy Foelsch of St.Louis and I married in 1985. We were soul mates. We raised her sons, Shawn Tate (born in 1975), and Bryant Tate (born in 1977). We had a son Taylor in 1989, he is the apple of my eye. Unfortunately life doesn't often go the way you planned; Christy and I divorced in early 2000. I later met Sherry Ramser to whom I am now very happily married. She is my greatest blessing. Sherry is formerly Sherry Bennett of Cookeville, TN. She is a chemical engineer by profession. We were wed in July of 2001. I'm a stepdad to Sherry¿s son Trae Ramser (born in 1990), and Sherry¿s daughter Courtnae Ramser, (born in 1993). I make it down to Marathon about once a year, usually running the 7 Mile Bridge Run in April. I'm in decent shape; I still weigh less than I did in high school. I've had a full beard since college, and a long ponytail since before Taylor was born. For a change of style I cut off my ponytail in November 2008. Mom is a big fan of the new style. In the last few years I have recovered a faith which had been lost, continued to study philosophy, and become a bit of a camera enthusiast. (I have had a picture published in the Keynoter). I have slowly morphed from a pessimist to an optimist. I¿m happy with my life and I think most people who know me are happy with who I am. I like who I am (Thanks Mom) but I know I¿m not at all perfect. Hopefully folks will continue to be patient while I continue trying to be better. I and those I love have had our share of troubles, but God¿s mercies are new every morning.
School
I was born and raised in the Keys and loved everything about it. In high school I was quite shy and very quiet. I took karate from Ray Lilibridge out on the front lawn for PE. I drove a green and white 1963 Ford Falcon station wagon. I always worked after school as a busboy, dishwasher, or a stockboy at Neisner's. I loved to play basketball, but never participated in sports. I loved Ms. Roper's class. I hung out with Mark Brown and Mitch Bluett. I was 6 foot tall in the 6th grade but by graduation I was only the 11th tallest boy in the class. I looked old for my age. I was far too serious, and was referred to as "Stone Face" more than once. I attended the prom as a Junior and a Senior, my only two dates in high school. My younger sister Karen graduated in 1977.
College
I spent five years at the University of Florida in Gainesville getting a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. College for me was not easy. Math was especially hard; MHS did a very poor job of preparing me for Calculus, Differential Equations, and Vector Calculus. Any and all non-technical subjects were a breeze though. I was active in a very dynamic church the whole time I was in college. It was that primarily that brought me out of my introspective shell and gave me a decent set of interpersonal skills, decent for an engineer at least. It also formulated my deep and lasting interest in philosophy, metaphysics, and social psychology. On the minus side, my religious involvement kept me from exploring many things that now I rather regret missing. My fun loving side was to be developed sometime ...Expand for more
after college.
Workplace
Although my grades were not the best in college they were good enough to get me a job in Houston working for Brown and Root, at the time the world's largest engineering and construction company. That started my career as an engineering consultant. Though I've worked for different companies and worked in different industries my tasks have essentially always been the same. I'm just really, really good at what I do now. In the office I design and program the control systems that automatically control industrial manufacturing processes. I then travel to the plants and factories and spend long amounts of time at those destinations starting up the new or improved manufacturing lines. The length of a start-up is of course dependant on the size of a project. My startups have lasted between one and eight months with me spending most of that time at the plant and spending a weekend back in Atlanta only once every two or three weeks. I¿ve worked in pulp and paper, food and beverage, power plants, various chemical industries, and pharmaceuticals. I find the work quite interesting, but over the years I have grown less and less enamored with all the travel it involves. There has certainly been a price paid for being gone from home too much of the time. On the plus side I have seen a lot of states and a few countries I might not have seen otherwise. My job is not the most important thing in my life; I don¿t think it ever was. Nevertheless, earning that paycheck has called for a lot of sacrifices on the part of my family. I¿ll probably work at this until companies won¿t let me anymore, because I am gifted in what I do and I do enjoy it. At this time I am working for an engineering consultant company named FeedForward, Inc. We do only what is known as systems integration. This involves only controls engineering, no other engineering disciplines. The company has about 30 employees and the offices are in Marietta, about 40 miles of Atlanta traffic from where I live. However, about half of my work days I am able to work from home so it balances out for me. They hired me in April of 2008 for projects involving a client local to the Atlanta area so I currently do not have to travel for start-ups. Getting to stay in Atlanta for a little while is why I took the job.
Family Updates
My father, Frank Krebs died of lung cancer in 1984 at the age of 65. My mom, who turned 86 in 2008 moved from the Marathon to Lake City where she now lives next to my older sister Donna, who is also widowed. My older brother David is remarried and lives in St Petersburg, FL. Both Dave and Donna had three children each and they each have a number of grand children. My younger sister Karen is a nurse, she married Dr. Mark Thorne. They have lived in Clemmons, NC since before their son Max was born. Max started college in 2008. Their older son Chris died tragically in July of 2008. My older step sons Shawn and Bryant both live and work in the Atlanta area. Bryant is single but Shawn is married and has a young son Hayden. Taylor, my son, turned 19 in 2008. He is a second year college student at Georgia State and he works full time at UPS. We get together once or twice a week as we have since the divorce. Trae, Sherry¿s son, moved to New Zealand in 2004 to live with his dad. We had not seen him at all until November 2008 when he returned for a month long visit. He is a college student in New Zealand. As I write this in March 2009, Courtnae is 15 and a sophomore in high school. My wife Sherry works for an engineering consulting company named Processes Unlimited as a process engineer. We will travel to New Zealand this year to visit Trae and to visit Courtnae¿s father. All my family is in good health at this time.
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