Ernest Keith and son Brian earned their degrees the same year.

Ernest and Brian Keith: Making Education a Family Affair

By Stefanie Johnson
Special to FYI Online

It is not unusual that a UMUC student would recommend the University to a friend or colleague. However, when Brian Keith considered attending UMUC, the idea came from a particularly reliable source: his own father.

“My dad was already enrolled at UMUC and had nothing but positive things to say about his experience,” said Brian. “I was impressed by the variety of courses offered and the flexibility of attending classes at night, during the weekends, online, or at one of the many extension campuses.”

It was this flexibility that convinced Ernest Keith Sr., Brian’s father, to begin taking classes at UMUC.

“It was so convenient,” Ernest said. “I used to travel a lot and it fit my schedule. I would study at airports and in hotel rooms.”

Ernest has a long history of persistence in achieving his goals. While on a 1960 field trip to Washington, D.C., from his New Jersey high school, he recalled first seeing the place where he would one day work.

“We were coming down the Baltimore–Washington Parkway in two buses and I saw the sign for the Goddard Space Flight Center. I thought, ‘Wow. That’s where I’d like to work.’”

Ernest took college preparatory courses with heavy concentrations in math and science, planning to study engineering after graduation. However, the loss of both of his parents while he was still in high school forced him to alter his plans. Completing high school with excellent grades, he joined the Navy and became an aviation electronics technician.

He never abandoned his dreams, though. While in the reserves at Andrews Air Force Base, Ernest began taking night classes in engineering at the Capitol Institute of Technology.

“We were always trying to improve ourselves, so that when we got out of the military, we’d get a better job,” he said.

Ernest was hired by NASA and rose through the ranks over the span of a 36-year career, working, finally, at the Goddard Space Flight Center.

UMUC provided the resources and opportunity for the further fulfillment of his goals.

“There was an opportunity for me to get a better job and a higher salary with a degree,” he explained.

Not one to shy away from opportunity, Ernest began working toward a degree in business administration, enrolling at UMUC part time in the early 1980s.

Inspired and encouraged by his father, Brian Keith, who was also working for NASA in Lanham, Maryland, decided to enroll at UMUC in 1993.

“I wanted to accelerate my career,” Brian explained. “I knew the only way to be able to survive in a competitive job market [like the one] in the D.C. area was to get an undergraduate degree.”

Brian chose to study criminology and criminal justice, taking courses at UMUC campuses in Adelphi, on Andrews Air Force Base and Fort Meade, as well as online.

Ernest and Brian Keith graduate together.

The 1997 UMUC graduation ceremonies included this extraordinary father and son team, as Brian and Ernest Keith finished their degrees and marched together.

“We walked across the stage together proudly,” recalled Brian.

The degrees the Keiths earned from UMUC directly contributed to the realization of their goals. One month before receiving his Bachelor of Science, Brian was offered a job in his native Maryland. Doors have continued to open after graduation, and he is currently a senior program specialist for the Governor’s Office of Criminal Justice Planning in Sacramento, California. Under the California Office of Homeland Security, Brian oversees $20 million in both state and federal law enforcement and homeland security grant programs.

Earnest Keith, meanwhile, after earning his BA in business administration, received his sought-after promotion.

“I moved up a notch,” Earnest said. “Having my degree certainly made a difference.”

But it wasn’t his own achievement that was the most important for Earnest.

“ We have three boys,” he said, “and I always wanted them to have a good life.” And in that regard, UMUC has once again helped to make his dreams come true.