Down River

By John Lipez 

The Keller & Munro Thread Ends:
Another win for the chain stores, another loss for the local folks. Yep, Lock Haven’s last standing independent pharmacy will soon be boarded up.

The Keller and Munro drug store recently notified its customers it will be closing soon. It’s part of a trend, consolidations and closures in so many fields; tough to compete with the big boys.

The loss of Keller and Munro is particularly disappointing to Down River, a longtime customer. As owner Jeff Packech wrote in his letter to customers announcing the impending closure, “I had the privilege to be your parent’s and even your grandparent’s pharmacists and it’s been fun and it’s been an honor.”

You had to love Pharmacist Jeff’s reference to fun. Not only was he wonderfully knowledgeable in all things pills, he had (and has) a great sense of humor and a great rapport with his customers.

And you had to know if you were a Keller and Munro regular that Pharmacist Jeff was a proud graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, a proud booster for all things Panther. And this is where the fun often came in: any Penn State – Pitt football game made for great fodder between Jeff and Down River, neither of us giving an inch in representing our respective schools of graduation (although we both agree that Penn State’s James Franklin was not and is not a good game day coach).

Our differences never led to fisticuffs, it was all good natured, especially since Penn State usually is better than Pitt. Pharmacist Jeff even was kind enough to do a series for The Record on the PSU-Pitt football series when the teams renewed their rivalry a decade or so ago.

Anyway, one can’t but lament the loss of another of our home-grown businesses. A check online showed Keller and Munro opened better than six decades ago where the Jersey Shore State Bank office now sits on Bellefonte Avenue.

Its history was not all that unusual in how such businesses were passed along. If the Down River memory is correct, the drug store started in 1957, opened by Percy Keller and Oscar Munro, two pharmacists who elected to go independent and leave the Widman and Teah drug store flock which was dominating the Lock Haven area.

As noted by the owners at the time, the business goal was “to offer products and services that the emerging big chains could not.” Then at some point Jack Miller moved to town, worked at Keller and Munro and eventually bought the business from Oscar Munro in 1971; Miller was a pharmacist by trade and, not unlike Pharmacist Jeff, had a wonderful sense of humor.

It was sometime after 1971 that Pharmacist Jeff joined Keller and Munro and learned the ins-and-outs of running a pharmacy from Jack Miller; then in 1991 Jeff and wife Sandra purchased the business from then-owner Miller.

And a footnote on how this pharmacist-to-pharmacist ownership trail has played out in our small town: The late Jack Miller is the grandfather of Central Mountain High School quarterback Thomas Sprague and Pharmacist Jeff is the grandfather to Ryker Packech, a player this past season on one of the Keystone Little League All-Star teams.

But that community thread is coming to an end. Pharmacist Jeff told Down River recently there were no more Jack Millers, no more Jeff Packechs out there, no one willing to come in from pharmaceutical school, learn the craft, buy the business and provide personal care to their customers, live in their community, contribute to their community.

And this column would be remiss if it did not make mention that Clinton County does still have two fully functioning locally owned pharmacies, one in Mill Hall and one in Renovo and the community should be thankful and supportive of both.

But here we are today, with one less locally owned pharmacy to go along with our one less hospital, our somewhat diminished university and an airport with questions about its future.

Percy Keller and Oscar Munro wouldn’t be happy with how this is all playing out. Neither is Down River.