Chaiken Leadership Award

Robert F. and Cathy L. McKeon (’71 French).  Cathy, CEO of Kemark Financial Services, is a widely regarded leader in financial services program administration with more than 30 years of risk management and insurance experience.  Bob, a member of the Hofstra University Class of 1953, served in the U.S. Marine Corps before embarking on a career in the insurance industry.  He served as vice president of Johnson & Higgins and then senior vice president of Fred S. James & Company before co-founding Kemark Financial Services in 1987, where he remains Chairman Emeritus.

Bob and Cathy are long-time, devoted supporters of Penn State and the College of the Liberal Arts.  Cathy regularly is a Liberal Arts mentor, a member of the Dean’s Advisors, and currently serves on the College’s Development Council, where she chairs the group’s Strategic Communications Task Force.  She is also a past member of Liberal Arts Business Minor Task Force and the Liberal Arts Campaign Planning Committee.  Cathy received the Liberal Arts Outstanding Alumni Award in 2009 and the Penn State Alumni Fellow award in 2014.

Bob and Cathy are Liberal Arts Leaders and members of the Mount Nittany Society, the Atherton Society, the President’s Circle, and the Golden Lion Society.  In the College, they have established a director’s fund to support the Paterno Fellows Program and Trustee Scholarships to honor both Susan Welch and Jack Selzer.  Bob and Cathy have also endowed a men’s lacrosse scholarship, and Bob currently serves as a mentor to a member of the lacrosse team.

Cathy and Bob’s combined family currently holds seventeen degrees from Penn State.