Cabot Building Manager Dies at 60

Gene G. Ketelhohn, the Cabot House building manager who had been a spirited presence in House life for decades, died last Saturday night, May 26. He was 60.

Ketelhohn suffered from inoperable liver cancer, according to Cabot Assistant to the Masters Susan Livingston. He had worked in the House for 23 years, so long that it was called South House when he first became superintendent.

Livingston noted that despite Ketelhohn’s illness in the months before his death, he still enthusiastically participated in many of his favorite activities around Cabot.

Livingston remembers Ketelhohn’s dedication to the annual Cabot House musical, which she directs. An avid visual artist and graduate of New York’s High School of Music and Art, Ketelhohn had long designed sets for the shows and insisted on taking part in this semester’s production of “Grease.”

“Even though he was very ill at the time,” she said, “he insisted that he was going to make Greased Lightning,” referring to the souped-up car that serves as a centerpiece of the musical’s plot.

Ketelhohn’s art was a frequent sight around Cabot even aside from the sets. He painted the portrait of former House Masters Warren and Ann Wacker that now hangs in Cabot’s formal living room and also helped to design the House tie. A 991 Crimson article also described Ketelhohn’s construction of sculptures from trash.

“For the past three days, visitors to Cabot have been met in the foyer by a display of garbage sculptures mounted on pedestals and walls. But dissenting murmurs of ‘Hygiene!’ only provoke an affable greeting from Superintendent Gene Ketelholn, at whose hands the refuse of Massachussetts has been twisted and glued into meaningful shape since the early 1970s,” the article said.

In addition to his art, Ketelhohn taught tai chi classes in Cabot for students and brought two different musical groups of which he was a member to play at House events, including a square dance.

Livingston describes Ketelhohn as enthusiastic about “old-timey and bluegrass music.” As a guitarist, he played with various local bands in the Waltham area despite the fact that he could not read music, according to Livingston.

Adam J. Benitez ’07, a government concentrator who worked in the House office with Ketelhohn, also recalls the many passions he brought to Cabot.

“He took a lot of pleasure in simple things,” Benitez, who was traveling, wrote in an e-mailed statement. “He loved road bicycles, martial arts, and bluegrass music. You could always hear the country twang in A-entry coming from his office.”

Ketelhohn is survived by his wife, Linda Abrams, and sister Erica. Livingston said he also maintained close relationships with a number of the Cabot staff and students, friendships that she credits with keeping him at the House for so long.

“I think that the job gave him a lot of contacts with people which he really enjoyed,” she said.

Cabot House Master and Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies Jay M. Harris noted that Ketelhohn’s many years of experience made him an irreplaceable presence in the House.

“Obviously it’s a great tragedy,” he said. “It will be many years before anybody knows their way around the building the way that he did.”

—Staff writer Marianne F. Kaletzky can be reached at kaletzky@fas.