Biography

Keith Dexter Skelton was born in Pennsylvania in 1918. He graduated from Edinboro State Teachers College in 1939. He then studied history at the University of Michigan until 1941, when he was forced to drop out due to financial hardship. He then worked as an insurance adjuster for Liberty Mutual in various cities around New England. He was drafted in 1941, but his service was deferred because he and Ruth Ellen Blake were engaged to be married. They married later that year and later had four children. Skelton enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1942 and served in the Pacific theater during World War II. After his discharge in 1945, he returned to his job at Liberty Mutual. He completed a master’s degree through the University of Michigan by mail, then attended Syracuse Law School, then transferred to the University of Washington Law School and earned his law degree in 1949. He practiced law in Eugene, Oregon, beginning in 1951. He also worked as an adjunct professor at the University of Oregon. He was a Democratic politician and represented Lane County in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1957 to 1960. He relocated to Portland and represented Multnomah County in the House from 1965 to 1974. Skelton and Ruth Ellen Blake divorced in 1967, and he and fellow legislator Betty Roberts married in 1968. After leaving the Legislature, he returned to the practice of law in Portland and also served on the Portland Community College Board. He died in 1995.

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