Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 8, 1994 TAG: 9412080042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But when Bob Keeshan - the man whom generations of children grew up watching on television - showed up, some couldn't mask their disappointment.
This Captain Kangaroo wasn't exactly what they expected.
"They've been waiting all day for a real kangaroo to show up," said Karen Looney, a preschool teacher at the center.
In a time when an overgrown, purple dinosaur reigns on children's television, it was no surprise that toddlers and preschoolers didn't recognize the captain. For that matter, some of the adults didn't, either.
Keeshan, 67, was wearing a brown tweed jacket, not his signature red polyester with white piping. His hair is more white than blond, and he's thinner, too.
Keeshan, who was on hand Wednesday for the grand opening of First Union's expanded and renovated child-care center, doesn't mind the anonymity. He has retired from being the captain.
"But I've never been busier in my life," Keeshan said.
He has written his first book, and in 1987 he co-founded Corporate Child Care Management Services with former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander and Marguerite Salle, who served in Alexander's Cabinet as commissioner of human resources.
The company, which is based in Nashville, manages and operates more than 50 child-care centers nationwide for corporate clients like Marriott Corp., Honeywell and J.C. Penney Co.
His company now runs First Union's day-care center.
The center was state-of-the-art eight years ago when it inspired Keeshan to begin Corporate Child Care. After a $500,000 renovation project to update classrooms, playgrounds and educational materials, it's on the cutting edge again, Keeshan said.
He first visited the center in October 1986 - two months after it opened. He was on his way to a Tennessee speaking engagement.
"I was so impressed that I couldn't stop talking about it when I got to Tennessee," Keeshan said.
He shared his enthusiasm with Alexander, and Corporate Child Care was born.
"Corporations are being served by Corporate Child Care all because of that visit here in Roanoke," Keeshan said.
by CNB