Mark Keyser

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Collection Name
HOME/BREWED Oral History Project
Title
Mark Keyser interview
Handle
http://hdl.handle.net/1961/dcplislandora:291911
Language
eng
Date Created
2020-07-16
Creator/Contributor
Keyser, Mark, 1950-, interviewee
Dobberteen, Anne, interviewer
Extent
01:35:33
Note
Mark Keyser discusses his childhood visits to Washington, D.C. and his recollections of his grandfather, Adolph Kaiser, his Aunt Amelia Heurich and visiting her at the Heurich House, and her sisters. He discusses his father Karl Anton Keyser's U.S. Navy service during World War II, along with ancestors on the Dilger side of his family and their service in the Civil War. One Dilger relative was a German operative working in D.C. during World War I. Although Mark does not have strong memories of the brewery itself, he does recall that the brewery's stables that later became a wax museum. Mark also reflects on stories he had heard about Christian Heurich, his generosity, and on his legacy in the family, recognizing that Christian likely provided financial assistance to the Keysers at times.
Mark Keyser was born in 1950 in Northampton, Massachusetts to Karl Anton Keyser (1918-1995) and Dorothy M. Borger (1923-2003). He grew up near Amherst in a veterans’ housing project and visited his extended family in Washington, D.C. as a boy. Today Mark lives in Seabrook, New Hampshire, where he was enjoying a career as a substitute teacher until the COVID-19 pandemic hit in February/March 2020. His father Karl was Amelia Louisa Keyser Heurich’s nephew and grew up in Washington, D.C., at 1777 Lanier Place, NW. Karl served as Executive Officer (second in command) in the U.S. Navy in World War II on the U.S.S. Eberle in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean theatres of combat. He stayed in the U.S. Navy Reserve until about 1973. He earned several graduate degrees from Carnegie Mellon University (then the Carnegie Institute of Technology) in Pittsburg and had a long career as a professor of mechanical engineering and material sciences at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst?). Mark’s mother Dorothy had a career as a model in New York City where she crossed paths with actress Tippi Hedren before the war. During the war she worked at Sperry on Long Island as part of the war effort. After she married and the war ended, she concentrated on raising her three children. This interview also includes material about Mark’s grandfather, Adolph G. (“Dolph”) Keyser Sr. (1874-1955). Dolph was an attorney in Washington who Mark remembers had an office on K Street, NW, and who he believes worked for Christian Heurich, primarily handling Heurich’s real estate holdings. Dolph attended law school at Georgetown. Amelia Heurich’s diary records a moment in 1914 when her brother was not promoted to a secretarial/bookkeeping position at the brewery.
Neighborhood
Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.
Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C.
City
Remote - Washington, D.C. and New Hampshire via Zencastr
Subject
Breweries
Families
German Americans
Spies
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
World War, 1914-1918
World War, 1939-1945
Armed forces
Recreation
American Dream
Household employees
Source
HumanitiesDC, DC Oral History Collaborative
Local identifier
dcpl_dcohc023_05.wav
Rights Information
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-NC/1.0/
In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted
DC Public Library