By Shawn Hogendorf, Staff Writer

After Suzanne Brown Keel graduated from Prior Lake High School in 1985 she was “pretty sure” she wanted to be a doctor.

Her favorite class was biology. She had been to Boston with her father once and thought it would be a great place to go to college. While in Boston, Keel fell in love with the old buildings and fantastic museums of the east coast.

After growing up in the Willows neighborhood of Prior Lake with her parents, an older sister,  a younger brother and “a bunch of great neighbors the family had a lot of fun with,” Keel left what she calls, “the best childhood ever” and headed for Boston University.

After heeding the advice from a college advisor, who told Keel he had several physician friends who regretted only studying sciences in college, Keel decided to declare an art history major for her undergraduate studies in college.

“I chose art history because I’ve always enjoyed art and it seemed like fun,” Keel said.

Her studies led her to become the winner of Boston University’s Robert Yellen Award for distinguished Art History graduate in 1989. During her senior year, Keel participated in a study abroad program in London where she took courses in British art history and worked a four-month internship at an art deco gallery.

“It was an eye-opening look into lives of a subculture,” Keel said.

After returning from London, Keel came back to Minnesota to attend the University of Minnesota Medical School. After medical school, she married her husband Paul Keel, also of Prior Lake, and they moved back to Boston where Keel did her residency.

“In real terms, the study of art and my chosen field of pathology are not that dissimilar,” Keel said. “Obviously, both are visual. You see enough paintings; you can pick out the Italian artists. You see enough Italian paintings; you can pick out the Canaletto. Now I look at glass slides. You look at enough biopsies; you can diagnose cancer. With time, you are able to diagnose the many subtypes and rare forms.”

Keel did her pathology residency at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1993 to 1997. She was a staff pathologist at the same hospital from 1997 to 2000. Keel was also an instructor of pathology at Harvard Medical School from 1997 to 2000.

After spending seven years and having one child in Boston, the Keels moved back to Minnesota. In 2000 Keel became an assistant professor of pathology at the University of Minnesota Medical School from until 2003. During that same time she was a staff pathologist at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis. In 2003, Keel accepted a position as a staff pathologist and medical director of histology laboratory at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, where she worked until 2007.

Keel is currently an associate clinical professor of pathology at the University of Irvine Medical Center in Southern California.

Keel has four children ages 4, 6, 8 and 10.

As a Laker, Keel lettered in choir all four years of her high school career. She also lettered on the synchronized swim team six years, where she was also a captain and state champion. Keel was a member of the National Honor Society for two years.

Keel said she was “exceedingly surprised” at her nomination into the Laker Hall of Fame. “I have done nothing in high school, or since, that a hundred others haven’t done,” she said.

Keel said her favorite memories at Prior Lake High School are limited since a lot has happened since then. But Keel said she loved choir, biology and German class and synchronized swimming.

“You needed a thick skin to be a synchronized swimmer,” Keel said. “People loved to tease us. Who would know that a few years after graduation a Vegas show like Cirque du Soleil’s “O” would actually be looking for synchro people. Boy, what a career path that would’ve been.”

The Laker Hall of Fame award banquet and dinner will take place Thursday, July 31 at The Wilds Golf Club, 3151 Wilds Ridge in Prior Lake. The dinner is open to the public and tickets cost $25. Reservations can be made by calling (952) 226-0063 or by calling Mary Haugen  at (952) 447-5473. Tickets are also available at www.plsaef.org. Other nominees for the Laker Hall of Fame Distinguished Achievement are Brian Harms and Michael Benjamin.

 Shawn Hogendorf can be reached at (952) 345-6374 or shogendorf@swpub.com.