Floyd (Max) Keasling

Floyd (Max) Keasling died on Sunday, June 23, 2024, after 84 years full of life.  

His services will be Thursday, June 27, 2024, at 11:00 am. at the Harvard United Church of Christ with Rev. Dave Johnson officiating. Visitation will be Wednesday evening from 6-8 p.m. at the church. Burial will be in the Harvard Cemetery following the services Thursday. 

He was born in Hastings, NE on January 26, 1940, to Floyd and Della Keasling and grew up on their farm south of Harvard. Max attended Harvard Public School, where he graduated in 1958. Max played football and basketball in high school and was a member of the marching band. He attended the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, where he was a member of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and played trumpet in the University of Nebraska Marching Band for a not very successful University of Nebraska football team.  He loved music, and the band was his musical outlet then.

Max married his high school sweetheart Karen Miller on November 24, 1962, and farmed the Miller family farm northwest of Harvard longer than any other person on that land.  He and Karen together raised two children, Jacque and Jay until Karen’s untimely death in 1975, at which point Max was a single parent. He was a devoted, supportive, proud, and hard-working father. He was also a loving grandfather to his four grandchildren and was always thrilled to see them.

Max loved farming, so much so that he retired after 60 years of planting, harvesting, and raising livestock. He was a conservative farmer in the best sense of the word: he believed in buying only what was needed, maintaining what he did buy so it could be used for many years, and conserving and preserving the environment by rotating crops to minimize fertilizer and pesticide use. He embraced the latest engineered seeds and farming practices but not so much the computer or smart phone.

Max had numerous hobbies, which he enjoyed in the winters and after he retired. They included playing violin (particularly when he was accompanied on the piano by Jacque or Jay), painting landscapes with Bob Ross and tractors with spray cans, woodworking (making numerous clocks, lamps, and candleholders that decorate his children’s and grandchildren’s homes), gambling once or twice a year, watching football, and playing golf. After having a heart procedure earlier this year, Max did splurge on a shiny red Corvette, which he never drove in the rain or on gravel, proving to us all that we need to enjoy the things we love most in life regardless of our age. 

Max was proceeded in death by his brother Gary in 1956, Karen in 1975, Floyd in 1997, and Della in 2010. He is survived by Jacque (Jimmy) Gillespie of Lyons, KS and Jay Keasling (Aidan Vo) of Berkeley, CA, by four grandchildren—Kate Marshall of Clearwater, FL, Andy Marshall of Tampa, FL, Brannan Gleeson of Los Angeles, CA, and Kalen Gleeson of Oakland, CA—by his brother Fred and sister-in-law Marge, niece Nicole Cooper and family, nephew Jeff Keasling and family, and numerous family members and friends. 

Murray Wilson Funeral Directing is in charge of the arrangements.