Frederick W. Keator was an American lawyer who became an Episcopal priest and the third missionary bishop of Washington state, which encompassed that portion of Washington State west of the Cascade Range. It achieved full diocesan status during his tenure, so Rt.Rev. Keator became the first bishop of what became the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia.
Early and family life
Born to Mary Chapman Baldwin Keator and her husband Jermann Samuel Keator on October 22, 1855 in Honesdale, the county seat and a railroad terminus in Wayne County, Pennsylvania serving New York City and Pennsylvania's coal county. Young Keator moved to Moline, Illinois with his family by 1860. He graduated from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in 1880 and two years later received an LLB. degree from Yale Law School. After admission to the Illinois bar, he practiced law in Chicago, Illinois. He later attended the Western Theological Seminary of Chicago, and graduated in 1891. He received a D.D. degree from Yale in 1895. In 1896, when he was 39, Rev. Keator married 21 year old Emma Lyons n Chicago, and they would soon have a son, Frederic Keator, Jr.
Ministry
An Anglo-Catholic, Keating helped establish the Church of the Atonement in the developing Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago, which prompted him to leave his legal practice. After ordination both as a deacon and priest by bishop William Edward McLaren of Chicago in 1891, Rev. Keator served as the mission congregation's first priest-in-charge until 1896, shortly before it achieved full parish status. He then served congregations in Freeport, Illinois until 1898, and at St. John's Church inDubuque, Iowa from 1899–1902. Consecrated on January 8, 1902 by Presiding Bishop William Hobart Hare, as well as by Chicago bishop McLaren, bishop Cyrus F. Knight of Milwaukee, as well as bishops Nicholson, White, Edsall, Morrison, A. Williams, Anderson and Taylor, Rt.Rev. Keator reached his diocese on January 25 and soon established his residence in Tacoma. He served as the third Missionary Bishop of Washington State from 1902 until 1910, when the missionary district achieved full diocesan status. Among his various civic activities, Bishop Keator served as president of the Tacoma Public Library board from 1907 to 1910 and also 1912 to 1923. He also served on the boards of the Annie Wright Seminary, Whitman College in Walla Walla, and Tacoma General Hospital. Bishop Keator also served as the chaplain of the local Coast GuardArtillery Corps and the Washington State National Guard, and was a member of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church. Rt. Rev. Keator became the first Bishop of Olympia upon its formation in 1910, and served until his death on January 31, 1924. The following year, Rev. Simeon Arthur Huston was elected to succeed him and was duly consecrated, and would move the diocesan seat to Seattle.
Death and legacy
Bishop Keator died of a heart attack on January 31, 1924 in New Haven, Connecticut while visiting his son, who had become an instructor in electrical engineering at Yale. He was also survived by his wife, and was buried in Tacoma cemetery in Tacoma, Washington. His papers are held by the Tacoma Public Library in their special collections.
