Buck Keen loved baseball and cars, and the inaugural edition of a scholarship award in his name, went to Mount Vernon High School baseball player, Marcus Bradley, at the Yellow Jackets’ sports award event in June.
Long-time Mount Vernon resident Arthur L. “Buck” Keen passed away Dec. 6, 2021, and the area lost a friend and a real fan of baseball and the local kids who play it. He was also a car guy.
Keen was a 1956 graduate of the former Johnsville High School, where he was an outstanding athlete. He had a short run with the Cincinnati Reds.
Keen worked for the former HPM Company in Mount Gilead, and before retirement was the vice president of quality. He was a skilled machinist and was an excellent go kart and snowmobile racing engine-builder. He was a lifetime member of Dart Cart at Mid-Ohio Racetrack in Mansfield. He raced go karts for more than 25 years all over the United States. He was inducted into the World Karting Association in 1973.
He was also known locally as “Uncle Buck,” a sports fan, community friend and supporter of both Mount Vernon’s and Highland’s baseball programs.
After Keen’s passing, his wife, Juanita, reached out to Mount Vernon High School baseball coach Nate Hunt to set up a remembrance of “Buck” in the form of a scholarship to a worthy Yellow Jackets baseball player.
Hunt did not know Juanita Keen at the time but has since become close friends with her. They discussed a scholarship award that would remember “Buck.” Juanita Keen said she trusted Hunt to pick the senior athlete whom “Buck would have given it to.”
Juanita Keen gave Hunt “Buck’s” background and told the coach of Keen’s baseball and car history. Hunt said, “Buck was a car guy; a big motor guy who could build them, rebuild them and work on them. And, he was a baseball player and fan. Now, I have a great baseball staff and I presented this to them and we quickly decided that this was a ‘no-brainer.’”
Hunt knew whom “Buck” would have chosen for the award “a senior athlete who played baseball and loved the game and who was a mechanic or car guy,” he said.
Hunt said Bradley was the perfect fit for the award. “He is a mechanic-ballplayer. He is a car guy and a motorhead as well as being a baseball player. As a senior, Marcus was a big backbone of the season. He played every position but catcher, and from his start at Mount Vernon HS as a freshman, through his senior year, I saw him grow physically, spiritually and emotionally. He is a great kid and after the last game of the season, Marcus came to me and said he would still be around, and even asked if he could help coach.”
Bradley, who also plays for a travel baseball team, the Columbus Cobras, played consistent ball all year, getting quality at bats, working walks, getting timely hits and playing reliable ball on the mound and behind the plate.
Hunt said he received $1,000 in Buck Keen’s memory for the award, getting donations from friends, family and acquaintances from around the state, and the scholarship helped Bradley learn what he could accomplish and help him on his way to his next accomplishments.
Hunt said that Bradley told him that when he received the award and other honors, he will use the scholarship money for tools … something Hunt believes Buck Keen would have appreciated.
Bradley said, “After graduation, I got a job working at a garage, and if I stay there for five years. I think I can learn enough to own my own garage.”
