Michael Keel’s Career Led Him Through the Cold War to The Closing of GenDyn’s Convair
Editor’s Note: This is one in an occasional series of stories on people who had made an impact on San Diego’s business history.
t isn’t often you find someone who begins and ends his career with the same company.
Michael C. Keel is one of those rare people.
Starting his career fresh out of college with a division of General Dynamics in Rancho Cucamonga, Keel ended his career some 30 years later with the same defense company’s office in San Diego.
When Keel retired as executive vice president of the missiles and electronics group in 1992, he was head of the company’s entire West Coast operations, overseeing some 22,000 employees.
Keel, now 59, also guided General Dynamics through its industry drawdown and ultimate merger with Hughes Missiles and Electronics.
“We had to make the decision to go out of business or buy someone else’s business,” said Keel, who lives in Fairbanks Ranch. “We decided going out of business was not the thing to do. We started having discussions with other companies, but no one was interested; they hadn’t come to the same realization we had.”
Simply, Keel said, as the Cold War came to an end and defense dollars became scarce, there was a glut of defense products on the market.
“There were too many players; there was an overcapacity,” Keel said. “There were missile lines in all operations. We determined with the constraints that we needed consolidation.”
As difficult as it was in the early ’90s, Keel said there was a sense of accomplishment. He credited Convair for its behind-the-scenes role in the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Played A Major Role
“When the Wall came down, Convair had played a major role,” he said. The aerospace giant based here had manufactured the ground launch cruise missile, and its deployment in England in the mid-’80s tightened the grip on Eastern Europe.
“It was one more weapon in the arsenal,” he said. “Its mobile element contributed to bringing down the Wall.”
Despite the great disappointment as the aerospace industry drew down, there was also a tremendous feeling of satisfaction, Keel said.
“We had worked hard in San Diego to design, manufacture and deliver these missiles,” Keel said. “Then we find people with torches are cutting them up. But we described it as ‘mission accomplished.’ We had achieved our ultimate goal. Bringing down the Wall was the good thing that came out of the project.”
For virtually all of his career Keel had shuffled between General Dynamics sites in San Diego, Pomona and Rancho Cucamonga. He started with GD in 1963, fresh out of Long Beach State with a bachelor of science in electrical engineering, as an assistant engineer.
“I interviewed with six different companies and got six offers,” he said. “General Dynamics didn’t offer me the most money, but what enticed me was the type of work they did.”
Tomahawk
Keel climbed to project manager, then became a deputy general manager, ultimately taking over the reins on the Tomahawk missile project here. In 1991 he took over as executive vice president of missiles and electronics, moving his office to San Diego.
“The major challenge became figuring out what was happening to the industry,” he said.
The defense industry permeated San Diego’s work force.
“At the time it was impossible to imagine driving down (Highway) 163 and not seeing the General Dynamics sign,” he said. “It was hard to run into someone who didn’t have some kind of involvement, either with a family member or a friend, with General Dynamics or Convair.”
There was going to be considerable downsizing, no matter what, he recalled. But he characterized the era as a preservation of technology, of the sweat and toil people had given for decades.
“We were determined not to let the business run out, but to find it a good, new home,” he said. “Hundreds of people moved from San Diego to Tuscon and took along the heritage that was built here.”
Family Time
Since his retirement, Keel has caught up on his family time. All his children are grown, and his oldest daughter, Deborah Keel Cooper, an executive with the San Diego Economic Development Corp., had her first child in February.
“It will be our first grandchild,” Keel said. “Our son made it through med school and is a lieutenant in the Navy, doing his residency here at Balboa Naval Hospital. All three of our kids got married within 15 months of each other; it was a busy time.”
He and his wife, Carolyn, are active in various organizations and help with the San Diego-based Fresh Start Surgical Gifts, Inc. He’s also active with the Fairbanks Ranch Country Club and has traveled abroad, taking trips to Italy and South America over the past couple years.
“There’s still plenty to do,” he said.
