Cheryl Brown Keenan died Tuesday, October 10, 2023 from lung cancer surrounded by family and friends. She was born in Oakland, Ca on February 12th 1946 to Ronald and Loretta Brown. She was raised and went to school in Campbell, CA. She went to Moreland High School and then to San Jose State for a year and then worked as a secretary for several companies in the south bay. One of these was the Piper Airplane dealer in San Jose and where she started taking flying lessons. She became enamored with flying and bought a wrecked 1946 Luscombe, a 2 seat taildragger. Over the period of a year or so, together with the man she worked for, she rebuilt the airplane in flying condition. At the Palo Alto airport, she met John Keenan and he became her flight instructor and best friend for life. In 1972 she received her Private Pilot's license. She married John in 1973 and lived in Los Altos, CA until 1976. In 1976 she and John moved to Saratoga where Mike was born and she and John resided there until her death.
Cheri was an energetic and active woman. She belonged to the Experimental Aircraft Association, Chapter 62, and the Santa Clara County Airman's Association. When John joined the Dodge Ridge National Ski Patrol in 1991, Cheri followed in 1997. She started the patrol's website shortly thereafter and became very active in medical training. She and John were active DIYers and Cheri became adept at construction. She was an active participant in building and renovating their home in Saratoga. She was a Den mother for Mike in Scouts and was the driving force behind Mike's Eagle Scout Award. As Mike grew older and he began going to the Burning Man Festival, she decided to join him with several cousins and friends. In 2015 she designed and built a Burning Man Art car which she absolutely loved. She was always very artistic and loved craft projects. That led her to volunteer at FabMo, a Sunnyvale company specializing in recycling fabric and other items. Cheri played the piano and accordion and had a passion for gardening. Professionally she was trained in accounting and became the CFO for John's engineering company, Advanced Logical Design.
She will be sadly missed by many. She is survived by her son, Michael, her nephew Harley and husband John. She was predeceased by her parents Ronald and Loretta Brown and her brother Craig. She will be interred at the Hooper and Weaver Cemetery with many of her family in Nevada City, CA. A Celebration
of Life will be held at the Hiller Air Museum on November 8th at 11am. In lieu of flowers, please support the effort of the Ukrainians. She was passionate about their cause.