Father Robert F. Keffer, a priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington for 58 years, died July 27, 2026, at Dulles Health & Rehab Center in Herndon, Virginia. He was 83 years old.
Born Aug.14, 1942 in Philadelphia, he grew up in Hyattsville, Maryland and attended St. Jerome School after his father moved the family to Maryland to manage a Woolworth’s department store in the area.
As a seminarian, he attended St. Charles College Seminary in Catonsville and St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore before his ordination as a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington on May 18, 1968, at the Cathedral of St. Matthew in Washington, D.C.
Of his vocation, he said in a 2018 interview with the Catholic Standard to mark the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination, “I’ve never regretted a day of it. It just seemed to fit.”
He was first assigned as parochial vicar at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart Parish, Washington, DC. In his eight years there, Father Keffer taught music and religion at Sacred Heart School and helped run a summer dinner theater program there.
In 1976, he was appointed assistant chaplain to the University of Maryland in College Park, a post he held until 1984. From 1986-99, he served as director of campus ministry for the Archdiocese of Washington. From 1994-99, he returned to the University of Maryland as chaplain at the Catholic Student Center. In the decade in between his two stints at the University of Maryland, he served as the Catholic chaplain at George Washington University.
In 1995, Father Keffer earned a master’s degree in pastoral counseling from Loyola College in Baltimore.
Father Keffer spent more than 20 years as a campus ministry chaplain, telling the Catholic Standard in that 2018 interview that “I loved working with that group” of college students.
“They were so honest,” he recalled of the college students whom he served. “…They really challenge you to keep growing.” After the college students graduated, he said he hoped they left “with an understanding and caring for the Church, (that) they won’t drop out, and they’ll maintain a connection and continue to develop in their faith.”
In 1999 Father Keffer was appointed pastor for the Church of the Resurrection in Burtonsville, Maryland.
“It was a great fit for me,” he told the Catholic Standard, and described Resurrection Parish as “a very welcoming community to anybody and everybody.”
During his years there, priests from the parish began serving the nearby Riderwood retirement community in Silver Spring, Maryland and a growing number of Catholics from Cameroon began worshipping at the Church of the Resurrection. “It became very diverse and very alive,” the priest said in 2018.
During his time at Resurrection Parish, he oversaw the completion of a new parish life center, that included 10 meeting rooms, eight offices, a conference room, a youth center, and an outdoor courtyard and fountain. With the opening of that new building, the parish’s religious education classes could be held on site, rather than at area public schools. It was dedicated by then-Archbishop Donald Wuerl in 2006, and the parish life center was later named for Father Keffer to honor his service there.
Father Keffer retired from the Church of the Resurrection in 2012, relocating to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
He was also an avid cook, and his interest in cooking began as a youth at the kitchen in his family’s home.
“At the seminary, I ended up being class cook” for special events for seminarians, he told the Catholic Standard, adding that he kept up that interest throughout the years, including as “house cook” for activities at the Catholic Student Center at the University of Maryland.
In his retirement, he assisted in celebrating Masses at three West Virginia parishes and worked in campus ministry at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown.
The visitation for Father Keffer will take place at the Church of the Resurrection, Burtonsville, Maryland on Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026, beginning at 6 p.m., followed by a Vigil Mass at 7 p.m. An additional visitation will be held on Monday, Aug.10, 2026, from10 a.m. to 11 a.m., and Washington Auxiliary Bishop Gary Studniewski will celebrate the Mass of Christian Burial there at 11 a.m.
A repast at the parish will immediately follow the Mass, and interment will take place at 2:30 pm at Gate of Heaven Cemetery on that same day.
(This report includes information from an interview conducted by editor Mark Zimmmermann and published in the Catholic Standard on May 17, 2018)
