[1] Born and raised in Union City, New Jersey,[1] Keller obtained his BA and MA from Columbia University, where he served as an assistant dean and editor of the school's alumni magazine.
[2] His work covering the Columbia University protests of 1968 earned him the Atlantic Monthly’s award as Education Writer of the Year.
[3][4] He also received a U.S. Steel Foundation Award for distinguished service to higher education from Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965.
[4] Keller is best known for his book Academic strategy : the management revolution in American higher education, held in more than 1195 libraries,[5] and which has been cited over 200 times since its publication in 1983.
[6] At the time of his death, he has completed a book Higher Education and the New Society, to be published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2008.