Steven Bo Keeley is an American

adventurer An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

, holistic healer,

veterinarian A veterinarian (vet) or veterinary surgeon is a medical professional who practices veterinary medicine. They manage a wide range of health conditions and injuries in non-human animals. Along with this, veterinarians also play a role in animal r ...

, professional athlete,

commodity market A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products. The primary sector includes agricultural products, energy products, and metals. Soft commodities may be perishable and harvested, w ...

consultant, garage publisher, and executive tour guide, who in 2000 left civilization for a desert burrow in southern California, then, in 2009, became a world-traveling

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. The term often refers to a professional, skilled worker, or student from an affluent country. However, it may also refer to retirees, artists and ...

Early life

Keeley grew up in Idaho and Michigan, and graduated in 1972 with a DVM from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

(MSU). His father was an electrical and later

nuclear engineer Nuclear engineering is the engineering discipline concerned with designing and applying systems that utilize the energy released by nuclear processes. The most prominent application of nuclear engineering is the generation of electricity. Worldwide ...

, and mother a Welcome Wagon activist as the family moved through fifteen cities in as many years to settle in

Jackson, Michigan Jackson is a city in Jackson County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The population was 31,309 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located along Interstate 94 in Michigan, Interstate 94 and U.S. Route 127 in Michigan, U.S ...

. Steven Keeley won the Jackson Junior

Chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

Championship, and, at MSU, multiple

intramural sports Intramural sports are recreational sports organized within a particular institution, usually an educational institution, for the purpose of fun and exercise. The term, which is chiefly North American, derives from the Latin words ''intra muros'' m ...

championships for

Farmhouse FarmHouse (FH) is a men's social fraternity founded at the University of Missouri on April 15, 1905. It became a national organization in 1921. Today FarmHouse has 34 active chapters in the United States and Canada.FarmHouse Fraternity New Memb ...

fraternity to place them first in the all-fraternity competition for the first time in 100 years. After

veterinary school Veterinary education is the tertiary education of veterinarians. To become a veterinarian, one must first complete a degree in veterinary medicine Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM, V.M.D., BVS, BVSc, BVMS, BVM etc.). In the United States and C ...

he moved to California where a bureaucratic

licensing A license (American English) or licence ( Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another par ...

issue caused him to seek a sports career in professional

racquetball Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase vel ...

and

paddleball Paddle ball is a one-person game played with a paddle and an attached ball. Using the flat paddle with the small rubber ball attached at the center via an elastic string, the player tries to hit the ball with the paddle in succession as many tim ...

, in which he gained national prominence.

Athletic career

Keeley was one of the top three racquetball players in the world from 1971 to 1976 and in the top ten until 1979, while winning seven NPA National

Paddleball Paddle ball is a one-person game played with a paddle and an attached ball. Using the flat paddle with the small rubber ball attached at the center via an elastic string, the player tries to hit the ball with the paddle in succession as many tim ...

Titles. Keeley won the National

Singles Championship in 1971, 1973, 1974, 1976 and 1977. He captured the National Paddleball Doubles Championship in 1974 with Len Baldori and in 1976 with Andy Homa. Keeley was the second player in history to win a Professional

Racquetball Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase vel ...

Tournament after Steve Serot, when he defeated Charlie Brumfield 21-8, 21-17 in the finals of the NRC Long Beach Pro Am in October 1973. Keeley won the Canadian National

Singles Championship in November 1974 defeating Bud Muehleisen in the final. Keeley won his last Professional

Title in 1980 defeating

Marty Hogan Martin Francis Hogan (October 25, 1869 – August 15, 1923), nicknamed "the Indianapolis Ringer", was an English born right fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Cincinnati Reds (1894) and St. Louis Browns (1894–1895). A ...

21-5, 21-6 in the finals of the Voight Championship in Los Angeles. During his racquetball career, he defeated every US National Singles Champion from 1968–1982, and every professional champion of his era including ex-housemates

(Racquetball), Charlie Brumfield and Bud Muehleisen, as well as, Bill Schultz, Bill Schmidtke, Craig Finger, Davey Bledsoe and Mike Yellen. He became one of the game's foremost instructors and an author during the 1970s golden era with approximately 100 articles published in ''Ace'', IRA Racquetball, ''National Racquetball'' and other trade magazines. In 2002, he refused induction into the USRA Hall of Fame. where incumbent inductees credited him with instructing their games. He was the 2003 racquetball

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

for the Legends pro tour, and the same year co-invented (with Scott Hirsch) Hybrid Racquetball using a racquetball with wood paddleball paddles. He wrote what many have called the Bible of the sport, ''Complete Book of Racquetball'' (1976, 200,000 sold), and opened racquetball doors in every state, Central and South America with hundreds of clinics and exhibitions, once beating

Miss World Miss World is the oldest existing international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Since his death in 2000, Morley's widow, Julia Morley, has co-chaired the pageant. Along with Miss Universe, Mi ...

runner-up with a Converse tennis shoe in a ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'' exhibition, and others with a seven-inch mini-racquet. Keeley was a stroke and strategy trendsetter, and the first apparel-sponsored pro, flaunting multicolored Converse Chucks tennis shoes. He was featured in ''

'' and other publications as an unusual combination of athlete, intellectual, and 'flake.' Also a California B-division

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

champion, Keeley is the only player to consistently beat handball legend Paul Haber in mano a racqueta exhibitions. He started a silent

scholarship A scholarship is a form of Student financial aid, financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, Multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion, athleti ...

fund of personal prize money plus contributions to bring rising East Coast stars to train at the racquetball mecca, Gorham's Sports Center in San Diego, California. In 2007 he was awarded the prestigious NPA Earl Riskey Trophy for contributions to the sport. Inducted into the NPA Hall of Fame in 2014

Author and publisher

Disenchanted toward the end of his career with a faster ball and oversized racquets, Keeley, in 1978, moved to an unheated garage on

Lake Lansing Lake Lansing is a lake in Haslett, Michigan, just a few miles northeast of the state's capital city of Lansing. Overview Lake Lansing was originally known as Pine Lake, and was a highly popular recreation site in the early 1900s. The name was ...

, Michigan, in a one year's self-experiment including not

blinking Blinking is a bodily function; it is a semi-autonomic rapid closing of the eyelid. A single blink is determined by the forceful closing of the eyelid or inactivation of the levator palpebrae superioris and the activation of the palpebral por ...

for 24-hours, sitting in a homemade

sensory deprivation Sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation is the deliberate reduction or removal of stimuli from one or more of the senses. Simple devices such as blindfolds or hoods and earmuffs can cut off sight and hearing, while more complex devices can ...

crate, a one-week water fast, reading books upside-down and

mirror writing Mirror writing is formed by writing in the direction that is the reverse of the natural way for a given language, such that the result is the mirror image of normal writing: it appears normal when reflected in a mirror. It is sometimes used as ...

sleep deprivation Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the condition of not having adequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support decent alertness, performance, and health. It can be either Chronic (medicine), chronic ...

, bladder control, induced

color blindness Color blindness, color vision deficiency (CVD) or color deficiency is the decreased ability to color vision, see color or differences in color. The severity of color blindness ranges from mostly unnoticeable to full absence of color percept ...

, riding a bike for 24-hours, and developing fluent

ambidexterity Ambidexterity is the ability to use both the right and left hand equally well. When referring to objects, the term indicates that the object is equally suitable for right-handed and left-handed people. When referring to humans, it indicates that ...

. He created a small publishing company, Service Press Inc., in the garage foyer and self-published two books in one day, ''It's a Racquet!'' and ''The Kill and Rekill Gang''. He has written eight books on sport, travel, and the maverick personality, including the 2011 ''Keeley's Kures'' of alternative treatments for common ailments from boxcars,

veterinary medicine Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, medical diagnosis, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all a ...

, and world

healers Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices ar ...

, while carrying on an informal e-mail practice.

American nomad

In the 1980s, Keeley started traveling, leading to many exceptional experiences: He rode a

boxcar A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...

from Jacksonville, Florida, to New York and borrowed a suit to dine with

George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...

at the

Four Seasons Restaurant The Four Seasons Restaurant (known colloquially as the Four Seasons) was a New American cuisine restaurant in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City from 1959 to 2019. The Four Seasons operated within the Seagram Building at 99 E ...

. He railed on 360

freight trains A freight train, also called a goods train or cargo train, is a railway train that is used to carry cargo, as opposed to passengers. Freight trains are made up of one or more locomotives which provide propulsion, along with one or more railroad ...

as a "boxcar tourist" through the US, Canada and Mexico, and taught and wrote the textbook ''Hobo Training Manual'' for the first college

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

hobo class ''

Hobo A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. Hoboes, tramps, and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; a bum neither travels nor works. Et ...

Life in America'' in 1985 at

Lansing Community College Lansing Community College is a public community college with its main campus in Lansing, Michigan. Founded in 1957, the college's main campus is located on an urban, site in downtown Lansing spanning seven city blocks approximately two blocks ...

. The graduating class traveled to

Britt, Iowa Britt is a city in Hancock County, Iowa, United States, and is the home of the National Hobo Convention and the Hobo Museum. The population was 2,044 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History A train depot was built at Britt in 187 ...

, for the National Hobo Convention. During the late 1980s, "just for fun", he drove a Chevy van around the US with an invisible fish-line attached to a waving seven-foot stuffed rabbit riding next to him. Some additional exceptional experiences include: *playing

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

with U.S. open champion Art Bisguier *playing pingpong with world champ

Marty Reisman Martin 'Marty' Reisman (February 1, 1930 – December 7, 2012) was an American champion table tennis player and author. He was the 1958 and 1960 U.S. Men's singles champion and the 1997 U.S. hardbat champion. Early life Reisman was born on Feb ...

*matching wits against three-time ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead g ...

'' winner Ira Brody *chatting with

Libertarian Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...

presidential candidate

Harry Browne Harry Edson Browne (June 17, 1933 – March 1, 2006) was an American writer, libertarian political activist, and investment advisor. He was the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee in the U.S. elections of 1996 and 2000 running on a platfor ...

*being visited by

Entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

of the Year 1989, Stan Mason *swapping travel tales with Investment Biker

Jim Rogers James Beeland Rogers Jr. (born October 19, 1942) is an American investor and financial commentator based in Singapore. He is the chairman of Beeland Interests, Inc. He was the co-founder of the Quantum Fund and Soros Fund Management. He was a ...

*hoboing with financial author Doug Casey *looking through a microscope with

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

discoverer

James D. Watson James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper in ''Nature'' proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Wats ...

*living one year in the stairwell of speculator

Victor Niederhoffer Victor Niederhoffer (born December 10, 1943) is an American hedge fund manager, champion Squash (sport), squash player, bestselling author and statistics, statistician. Life and career Niederhoffer was born in Brooklyn to a Jewish family. His p ...

*inventing Checkers Proverbs with world champ Tom Wiswell *flying with

Linuxcare Linuxcare is an American IT services company founded in San Francisco in 1998 by Dave Sifry, Arthur Tyde and Dave LaDuke. The company's initial goal was to be "the 800 number for Linux" and operate 24 hours a day. Due to the dot-com bubble of the e ...

pilot-founder Art Tyde *being mentored under photographer

Art Shay Art Shay (March 31, 1922 – April 28, 2018) was an American photographer and writer. Biography Born in 1922, Shay grew up in the Bronx and then served as a navigator in the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, during which he flew 52 bomber ...

*riding the rails with Hobo King Steam Train Maury Graham. Bo hobo drinking gatorade

In 1988 he guided a ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'' journalist to

Mount Shasta Mount Shasta ( ; Shasta people, Shasta: ''Waka-nunee-Tuki-wuki''; Karuk language, Karuk: ''Úytaahkoo'') is a Volcano#Volcanic activity, potentially active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California. A ...

for a story that won "

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

Best Sunday Feature". Later, a 2001 epic along the

First transcontinental railroad America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the "Overland Route (Union Pacific Railroad), Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line built between 1863 and 1869 that connected the exis ...

with four executives ended on

9/11/2001 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

. In 2005 he crossed Canada by rail with

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

n accountant Tom "Diesel" Dyson, and later that year the pair, disguised as Mexicans, rode atop freights with Central American immigrants through Mexico to the border, where the

US Border Patrol The United States Border Patrol (USBP) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and is responsible for secu ...

apprehended them swimming the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

with expired Mexican

visas Visa most commonly refers to: * Travel visa, a document that allows entry to a foreign country * Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Vi ...

. In the 1980s he was regularly in the National Hobo Association Los Angeles clubhouse and contributed to their ''Hobo Times'' newsletter. In 2010, ''

Fort Worth Weekly ''Fort Worth Weekly'' is an alternative weekly newspaper that serves the Greater Fort Worth area (all of Tarrant County and some of Denton County). The newspaper has an approximate circulation of 35,000. It is published every Wednesday and featu ...

'' Peter Gorman's "Renaissance on the Rails" profile won 1st place for the

Association of Alternative Newsweeklies The Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) is a trade association of alternative weekly newspapers in North America. It provides services to many generally liberal or progressive weekly newspapers across the United States and in Canada. A ...

best feature of the year.

Finance

In the mid-1990s, Keeley turned to

commodities In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that specifically has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. Th ...

where his financial Low-Life Indicators gathered around the world—such as cigarette butts being shorter in a down market—were seriously considered by

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

investors and the press. He espoused his analytical methods at global banking seminars and he rode boxcars to speak on hobo

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

at the 1985 Aspen Eris Society and the 1995 New York Junto. A 1997 13-country tour to identify investment opportunities in

emerging markets An emerging market (or an emerging country or an emerging economy) is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards. This includes markets that may become developed markets in the future or we ...

for speculator Victor Niederhoffer earned millions in Turkey, but in the Black Friday, October 27, 1997, mini-crash losses from buying Thai bank stocks that had fallen heavily in the

Asian financial crisis The 1997 Asian financial crisis gripped much of East and Southeast Asia during the late 1990s. The crisis began in Thailand in July 1997 before spreading to several other countries with a ripple effect, raising fears of a worldwide economic meltd ...

combined with a 554-point single day decline of the Dow Index (the second largest decline to date in index history) forced the company to close its doors for a year, and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' took a swat at Keeley.

World traveler

Bo Keeley's unconventional life situation has resulted in numerous adventures, several noted in online publications online or in print: For example, ''Daily Speculations'', ''International Man'', ''

Liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

'' (1987), The Coffee Coaster and ''

Swans Swans are birds of the genus ''Cygnus'' within the family Anatidae. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometim ...

'' Magazine have documented many of his exploits such as: *Journeying through the Mid-East during the

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

*A knife attack in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

resulting in loss of thousands in

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

*A four-ft.-wide open mouth

hippopotamus The hippopotamus (''Hippopotamus amphibius;'' ; : hippopotamuses), often shortened to hippo (: hippos), further qualified as the common hippopotamus, Nile hippopotamus and river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Sahar ...

entering his

Lake Turkana Lake Turkana () is a saline lake in the Kenyan Rift Valley, in northern Kenya, with its far northern end crossing into Ethiopia. It is the world's largest permanent desert lake and the world's largest alkaline lake. By volume it is the world ...

pup tent *Being held captive at

machete A machete (; ) is a broad blade used either as an agricultural implement similar to an axe, or in combat like a long-bladed knife. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the Spanish language, the word is possibly a dimin ...

point by the Amazon Mayoruna *Guiding twenty Brazilian evangelists with a

penlight A flashlight (American English, US English) or electric torch (Commonwealth English), usually shortened to torch, is a portable hand-held electric lamp. Formerly, the light source typically was a miniature incandescent light bulb, but these h ...

from a jungle bus crash *Chasing

rhinoceros A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

horn

smugglers Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...

after being deputized and armed with a

pistol A pistol is a type of handgun, characterised by a gun barrel, barrel with an integral chamber (firearms), chamber. The word "pistol" derives from the Middle French ''pistolet'' (), meaning a small gun or knife, and first appeared in the Englis ...

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

*Being robbed behind the

Great Sphinx The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion. Facing east, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. The original sh ...

(and 99 other times around the world) *Surviving abandonment in the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

jacketless in winter *Having 150 close encounters with

rattlesnakes Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera '' Crotalus'' and ''Sistrurus'' of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small an ...

*Petting the head of a

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

snake charmer Snake charming is the practice of appearing to hypnotize a snake (often a cobra) by playing and waving around an instrument called a pungi. A typical performance may also include handling the snakes or performing other seemingly dangerous ...

's 12-ft.

King Cobra The king cobra (''Ophiophagus hannah'') is a species complex of snakes Endemism, endemic to Asia. With an average of and a record length of , it is the world's longest venomous snake and among the heaviest. Under the genus ''Ophiophagus'', i ...

American

folk artist Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically tra ...

Linda Mears features seven of his exploits in ''Adventure Art'' (1996). One painting called 'African Safari' where Keeley suffering

cerebral malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and '' Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, fatigue, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, s ...

was nearly mauled by a lion, is sold as a

jigsaw puzzle A jigsaw puzzle (with context, sometimes just jigsaw or just puzzle) is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaicked pieces. Typically each piece has a portion of a picture, which is comple ...

Iconic individualist

Keeley earned a

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

technical degree in 1985 from Lansing Community College, followed by one year of

volunteer work Volunteering is an elective and freely chosen act of an individual or group giving their time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency ...

in six

psychiatric ward A psychiatric hospital, also known as a mental health hospital, a behavioral health hospital, or an asylum is a specialized medical facility that focuses on the treatment of severe mental disorders. These institutions cater to patients with c ...

s and senior living facilities to study the developing

mind The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances ...

. Keeley has been called 'one of the greatest individualists in America.' In 2007, he founded Executive Tour Services as a businessmen's

Outward Bound Outward Bound (OB) is an international network of outdoor education organisations that was founded in the United Kingdom by Lawrence Holt in 1941 based on the educational principles of Kurt Hahn. Today there are organisations, called schools, i ...

on the American rails and hikes to Spanish missions in

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

. "My life follows the vicissitudes of Buck the Dog in Jack London's Call of the Wild," he once explained, "From comfortable back yards across America, boxcars on every major

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

, 100+ countries under a

backpack A backpack, also called knapsack, schoolbag, rucksack, pack, booksack, bookbag, haversack, packsack, or backsack, is in its simplest frameless form, a fabric sack carried on one's back and secured with two straps that go over the shoulders; b ...

, hiking the lengths of Florida, Colorado, Vermont, California,

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is thought to be the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth during summer. Death Valley's Badwat ...

, and Baja, Mexico, to finally semi-retire and write my memoirs in a dessert burrow in California." (Long a devotee of grand storyteller

Louis L'Amour Louis Dearborn L'Amour (; né LaMoore; March 22, 1908 – June 10, 1988) was an American novelist and short story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels, though he called his work "frontier stories". His most widely known West ...

, Keeley's hikes through the American West also led him to become an ardent fan of celebrated contemporary 'Western' writer Cathy Luchetti and her poignant, realistic portraits of pioneer life—such as ''Women of the West'', ''Children of the West'', ''Men of the West'', and ''Home on the Range: A culinary history of the American West''.) The burrow lies one mile east of the

Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range The Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range (CMAGR) is a bombing range operated by the United States Marine Corps, located in Southern California. Range description The range is a

where a 2008 near-miss caved the entry that he shored with old mine timbers. Keeley was the resident advisor to neighbor Phil Garlington's book, ''Rancho Costa Nada: The Dirt Cheap Homestead''. In 2007, he became the first California

substitute teacher A substitute teacher is a person who teaches a school class when the regular teacher is absent or unavailable; e.g., because of illness, personal leave, maternal leave and so on. "Substitute teacher" (usually abbreviated as sub) is the most c ...

to be fired for trying to prevent a playground 'skirmish.' He left to ride the rails, and then became an itinerant expatriate writing from select exotic locations including

Iquitos Iquitos (; ) is the capital city of Peru's Maynas Province, Peru, Maynas Province and Loreto Region. It is the largest metropolis in the Peruvian Amazon, east of the Andes, as well as the List of cities in Peru, ninth-most populous city in Peru ...

, Peru, San Felipe,

, and

Lake Toba Lake Toba (, Toba Batak: ᯖᯀᯬ ᯖᯬᯅ; romanized: ''Tao Toba'') is a large natural lake in North Sumatra, Indonesia, occupying the caldera of the Toba supervolcano. The lake is located in the middle of the northern part of the island of ...

, Sumatra.Keeley, 'On the Heels of Darwin in Sumatra', International Man, March 11, 2011 http://internationalman.com/article-keely-20110310.php

Books

Bo Keeley has written the following books: *Keeley, Steven, ''The Complete Book of Racquetball'', DBI, 1976, *Keeley, ''It's a Racquet'', Service Press Inc., 1978, *Keeley, ''Racquetball Lessons Made Easy'', McDonald Pub., 1976 https://web.archive.org/web/20121109205933/https://picasaweb.google.com/bokeely/FotozLinkFcbk#5576430082379748962 *Keeley and Shannon Wright, ''Women's Book of Racquetball'', Contemporary Books, 1980, *Keeley, ''Stroke Minder'' Racquetball Flip Book Series, Stroke Minder Pub.,1978 *Keeley and Debbie Ravens, ''The Kill & Rekill Gang'' (Cartoon book), Service Press Inc. 1978 *Keeley, Steven Bo, ''Hobo Training Manual'', Burrow Books, 1986. *Keeley, Steven Bo, ''Keeley's Kures'', Free Man Publishing Co., 2011 (https://www.amazon.com/Keeleys-Kures-Alternative-world-champion-hobo-adventurer/dp/1461077737/) *Keeley, Steven Bo, ''Executive Hobo: Riding the American Dream'', Free Man Publishing Co., 2011 (https://www.amazon.com/Executive-Hobo-Riding-American-Dream/dp/1463676980/) *Keeley, Steven, ''Charlie Brumfield: King of Racquetball'', Service Press, 2013. *Keeley, Steven, ''Women Racquetball pioneers'', Service Press, 2013. *Keeley, Bo, ''The Longest Walk Companion: With George Meagon'', Service Press, 2013. *Keeley, Steven Bo, ''Racquetball's Best: Pros Speak from the Box'', Service Press, 2014. *Keeley, Bo, ''Stories from Iquitos'', Service Press, 2014. *Keeley, Steven Bo, ''Greatest Photos Around the World'', Service Press, 2014. *Keeley, Steven Bo, ''Chess and Sport'', Service Press, 2014. *Keeley, Steven Bo, ''Book of Bo: Gems of My Life'', Service Press, 2015. *Keeley, Steven Bo, ''Book of Bo: More Gems of My Life'', Service Press, 2015. *Keeley, Steven Bo, ''James Hydrick in Photos'', Service Press, 2015. *Keeley, Bo, ''Hobo Moments: 30 Years in Pictures'', Service Press, 2015. *Keeley, Steven, ''Advanced Racquetball'', Service Press, 2015. *Keeley, Steven Bo, ''Bill Schultz: Ringmaster of Sport'', Service Press, 2016. *Keeley, Steven Bo, ''Elvis' Humor: Girls, Guns & Guitars'', Service Press, 2016. *Keeley, Steven Bo, ''Slab City: Tales from an Outlaw Town'', Slab Press, 2017.

Notes

The following show some of the primary online publication sources for much of Bo Keeley's literary output: *Daily Speculations stories by Keeley http://www.dailyspeculations.com/wordpress/?cat=205 *Swans Commentary articles by Keeley http://www.swans.com/main.shtml *International Man posts by Keeley http://internationalman.com/corr-bokeely.php *Coffee Coaster Guest Columns by Keeley **http://www.brianrwright.com/Coffee_Coaster/06_Guest/2010/100526_Taxpayer_Keely.htm **http://www.brianrwright.com/Coffee_Coaster/06_Guest/2011/110221_Bo_Kures_1.html *'Memoirs',100 early stories at Daily Speculations http://www.dailyspeculations.com/keeley/hobo_index.html *Northbank Fred, 'Stories from Steve Keeley' http://northbankfred.com/stories.html *Keeley, 'Stories' http://bokeelytours.com/

External links

*Adventure Art by Linda Mears http://bokeelytours.com/art/index.html *Catman Chart http://internationalman.com/article-keely-20110312.php *Short Bio http://bokeelytours.com/stories/bio.html *Keeley Timeline http://www.dailyspeculations.com/keeley/keeley_timeline.htm *Executive Tour Services http://www.bokeeleytours.com *Catman Keeley http://www.catmankeeley.com/ *The Amazing and Possibly True Adventures of Catman Keeley https://www.motherjones.com/media/2015/01/bo-keeley-corporate-hobo-adventures

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keeley, Steven Bo Hoboes 1943 births American racquetball players Living people