Alice (Chaney) Kettler

Alice B Kettler, Born in August of 1939 Alice was the daughter of Ernest and Lois Chaney. Her and her brother Dennis’s early years were spent in Bloomfield Indiana. The family moved to Shelbyville when she was still in elementary school. It was there that she met her future husband and lifelong partner Ron Kettler. After high school, she worked as a dispatcher for the Indiana state police, a time she often spoke about through her life. She loved the action, the handsome troopers. Ron was a student at Purdue and was focused on doing graduate work and getting his PHD. They worked together to make this happen. They were married December 1961. Son Robert Bradley was born in September 1962. Together they made it living altogether in a tiny house trailer in Lafayette In. After Ron’s graduation in 1969 he took a job at Miami University in Ohio. Alice worked as a telephone operator and later joined the Audio-Visual Dept. at Miami as well. Her detailed approach and incredible recall for numbers served her well and her responsibilities grew quickly at the university. She was appointed as administrator for the newly constructed art museum at Miami. She kept this job through her retirement. The changing focus of the art world didn’t faze her she was part of all the exhibits, shows, openings for the facility for over 20 years. She was perfect for it being able to manage a surly truck driver or a fussy artist with equal poise. She made friends easily and was fiercely loyal. The influence of the museum and her work was not lost on her daughter Alison. Born in Oxford, Ohio in 1972 Alison was always interested in art and art history. Alison studied abroad achieving a degree from Leeds University in the UK. Something Alice was extremely proud of.  She visited Alison there in the UK it was a special time for them. Her son Bradley also attended Miami and went into a career in Motorsport engineering winning multiple national championships and at the LeMans 24 hour race in France.  As a family, they spent a year in Tromso, Norway on a Fulbright exchange program. Alice had a lifelong fascination with textiles, weaving, and sewing. She was an accomplished weaver and knitter. Living in Norway she studied the techniques of the Lappish people famous for their wool garments. She traveled north several times to go to markets and buy yarn and supplies from the natives. She loved cars and reflected fondly on many of them she owned over the years, Buick convertibles, Pontiac LeMans, Audi Turbo, and her favorite MGB roadster that she drove as her daily car for 15 plus years. She loved dogs and had many, usually little terriers, often rescues. There were a couple that we would still talk about, Maggie, Max and last and maybe her favorite ever Bug who now lives with her daughter in law Lisa and her beloved Grandsons Erik and Sean. Losing her husband Ron in 1998 was something no one would have ever expected. In accepting this loss, she focused on family more than ever. Alison and her lived together and supported each other until Alison’s death in 2015. Declining health and a need for assistance led her to move to the Woodland manor on Somerville Road not far from the family’s first home in Oxford.  There she found friends in both the staff and the residents. She was satisfied and loved her little apartment. She considered it her home and in some ways the staff as an extension of her family.  She passed Tuesday Nov 10th in the night. She was at peace and comfortable.  She will be missed.

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