T. Keister Greer
Keister Greer left his mark as an excellent student at Andrew Lewis High School from which he graduated in 1939. His scholastic activities included serving as State president of the Virginia Beta Club; business manager of The Pioneer; president of the Debating Club; a member of the state champion debating team, vice president of the literary Society; president, Public Speaking Class; and a member of the American Legion Oratorical Team.
Keister attended the University of Virginia from 1939 - 1942, before entering the United States Marine Corps in World War II. Rising to the rank of captain, he served as executive officer and was a Rifle Company commander with the First Battalion, First Marine Regiment, First Marine Division, during the battle for Okinawa.
Following the war, Keister returned to the University of Virginia where he received a B.A. degree in 1947 and a bachelor of law degree in 1948. Not unexpectedly, he became a highly successful attorney-at-law and a member of both the Virginia and the California bar associations. The many notable cases he won included: the commonwealth against Dr. Archibald Carter Magee; Miller and Lux against Nickel (a $10 million recovery in 1956 involving a San Francisco oil fraud litigation); California against Buzard (a 1965 case tried before the U.S. Supreme Court that was important in taxation of military personnel); Slayer Land Co. against Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District (a 1973 supreme Court case) and the Sigmon will case in 1986.
Through the years, Keister continued his association with the Marine Corps and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel before retiring from the active reserves. Always a strong contributor to the community service, he has served as a member of the Board of Visitors at the University of Virginia; a founding board member of the Jubal A. Early Foundation Preservation Trust; a director of the First Virginia Banks, Inc., (21 years); chairman of First Virginia Bank - Franklin County (20 years); and a founding member of the Franklin County Historical Society. His legal writings include authorship of “Virginia and the Federal Rules, “ contained in the Virginia Law of Review of 1961.
A longtime resident of Franklin county, Keister and his wife, Elizabeth, reside in Rocky Mount. His children (by Dorothy L. Greer, who passed away in 1989) include: Taliaferro Greer Alexander; G. Carter Greer and Celeste C. Greer (deceased). His stepson is Andrew T. Call.
In further recognition of his outstanding career achievements, T. Keister Greer was among those inducted in 1997 into the Salem Alumni Hall of Fame established by the Salem Educational foundation and Alumni Association.
