Service to dedicate memorial for Doug Keller
 
Doug
Keller’s memorial at Mount Peace Cemetery includes
an inscribed angel statue from Italy, planters and two
benches.
Photos: Ken Crisafi
WEST AKRON — A memorial to
a local businessman also will serve as a place for many
to go to remember their loved ones.
The memorial for Doug Keller, a Fairlawn resident who died of lung cancer in December 2004, will be dedicated at a service June 4 at Mount Peace Cemetery, located at 183 Aqueduct St. in West Akron. The project to memorialize Keller, who died at age 62, was the work of good friend Michael Belusko, a former West Akron resident who currently lives in Cleveland.
“Doug was an absolutely unbelievably kind and decent person,” Belusko said. “He was very successful in business and very successful personally. And he helped out so many people who needed help.”
One of those he helped was Belusko.
“Doug taught me so much about decency, about values,” Belusko said. “He even taught me how to balance a checkbook. I have been on a mission to do all I can to honor him.”
Belusko said Keller was involved
in a variety of West Akron-area businesses. He taught
dance at Arthur Murray Studios, managed Iacomini’s
restaurant, worked at Lakeshore Jewelers and later ran
Wishes, a jewelry store on
Ghent Road, with Bonnie Wish.
Keller is interred in a mausoleum at Mount Peace Cemetery. Belusko talked with cemetery administrator Angela Krueger about placing a memorial among some trees there, and she suggested a spot between mausoleums that used to have a working fountain.
The fountain wasn’t working and had been used as a birdbath. Now it serves as the base for a granite statue of an angel Belusko ordered from Italy.
The supporting stone for the angel has been inscribed on two sides. One side states: “Dedicated to honor the glorious life and legacy of Doug Keller by Michael Belusko.” The other side states: “And you shall meet, know, remember, and love, Doug again...Veni Sancte Spiritus (Come Holy Spirit).”
Krueger and fellow cemetery employee Susan Blaydes planted flowers in the planter surrounding the statue. Two previously placed benches are on either side.
Krueger said she didn’t know Keller but feels like she did after her involvement with the project. She said it’s been something unique for the cemetery, Akron’s second oldest.
“I’ve been here since 1998, and we’ve never really had anything like this,” she said.
She added Belusko’s memorial
to Keller is something that can be appreciated by all.
“He’s doing this
for Doug Keller, but he really wanted to make it something
for anybody who has people here,” she said.
The service will take place at
2 p.m. June 4. The choir from the First Grace United
Church of Christ will perform, as will a group
of musicians. The public is invited.
Visitors should use the cemetery’s
main gate to access the area of the memorial.
For more information, contact
Belusko at (216) 375-6224.
A memorial for Akron area resident Doug Keller will take place June 4 at Mount Peace Cemetery.
Photo courtesy of Michael Belusko
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