William R. Keefer

William R. Keefer was an American geologist whose writing helped make western geology easier to understand for general readers. He is especially associated with The Geologic Story of Yellowstone National Park, a U.S. Geological Survey book first published in 1971 that traces how Yellowstone’s rocks, volcanoes, and thermal features took shape.

Available records connect him closely with the U.S. Geological Survey, where he began working in 1948 after earning his bachelor's degree. He later completed both a master's degree and a PhD at the University of Wyoming, and much of his published work focused on Wyoming and the broader Rocky Mountain region, including the Wind River Basin and Yellowstone.

He was born in 1924 and died in 2016. While biographical information online is fairly limited, his body of work shows a scientist deeply interested in helping readers see the long history written in landscapes.