Remembering Bill Keene | The International Outbreak Museum

Bill Keene in his International Outbreak Museum/office.
Bill out in the field: standing on embargoed ice from a 1992 municipal water outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in Oregon.
Bill out in the field: investigating a Listeriosis outbreak associated with Oregon soft cheese.
Bill out in the field: investigating strawberry fields for E. coli O157:H7.
Bill out in the field: swabbing milk crates in a Salmonella Braenderup outbreak.
Bill’s custom Oregon license plate, a nod to the pathogen that caused many of the outbreaks he investigated.
Bill proudly displaying some outbreak museum exhibits from past investigations.
Bill’s epi action figure!
Bill hosted outdoor screenings of classic movies on his front lawn, as featured in the Oregonian.
Bill visiting Machu Picchu with his wife and friends.
Bill at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva.
Bill near Malakal, Sudan.
Bill working for the W.H.O. in Thimpu, Bhutan.
Bill visiting a slaughterhouse in Karaj, Iran.
Bill working with the W.H.O. in Banda Aceh, Indonesia after a major tsunami hit in 2005.
Bill Keene-isms: some of our favorite Bill quotes.
Bill Keene-isms: some of our favorite Bill quotes.
In Bill’s office, tea was always available for visiting colleagues and friends

The impact Dr. William E. Keene had on the world of infectious disease outbreak is difficult to overestimate; he was an “extraordinarily able voice for public health and a leader in food safety for two decades.” We lost Bill very unexpectedly at the age of 56 when he was at the peak of his career; the hole he left in the universe has been felt by many public health communities.

Bill’s approach to foodborne disease epidemiology was both fun-loving and very serious, and it was out of this paradoxical combination that the International Outbreak Museum was born. Bill was inspired to preserve products (or sometimes just product packaging) that were recalled after being implicated as causing an outbreak. Eventually when he couldn’t source the real thing, Bill started crafting elaborate reproductions of recalled items (and discovered his inner crafter).

Bill’s family and friends have established a scholarship in his name through the Oregon Community Foundation. To make an online donation please visit the OCF webpage .