Highlands Today
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Retiring Early With No Regret
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Published: July 14, 2008
SEBRING - For hundreds of patients, his retirement meant searching for a new ophthalmologist. For Dr. H. Frederick Keiber, it meant the opening of doors that had at best remained ajar for a man whose practice always came first.
"In all my years I never had a malpractice suit filed against me," the soft-spoken eye doctor said. A graduate of the University of Florida at Gainesville and the University of Miami, he opened his practice in Sebring in 1975.
A native Floridian, Keiber was born in a POW camp near Starke in 1946. "My father was the camp's doctor," he explained. "In fact, he was the medical director for 22 camps throughout Florida and Georgia."
The young Keiber was raised in Winter Haven, but was attracted to the bucolic setting of Highlands County where he soon established himself in both the professional and community circles. In 1988 he opened a surgical center adjoining his optical and medical practices.The complex was on Highlands Avenue across from Highlands Regional Medical Center.
As his businesses continued to grow, his investments in the development of the community were successful, paving the way for an early retirement.
"I was more interested in maximizing my life," he said, "than the return on my investments."
A New Chapter
With that goal in mind, Keiber sold his practice about eight years ago and the surgical center about a year and a half ago. Today it's not all that easy to find him at home. He may be traveling through China, hunting in southern Africa, deep sea fishing off the Keys, tending to the fences at "the woods" - the family spread on CR 66 - attending a meeting for some community-minded function or overseeing the management of Alligator Antiques, his latest business venture. No one ever said retirement was to be sedentary.
"I swapped cataract surgery for diaper changing," the grandfather of five says with a sparkle in his eye. Keiber has four children, three boys and a girl; two lawyers and two investment brokers.
"I paid for 25-years of college," he said with a chuckle.
When Keiber settled in Sebring 33 years ago, he bought a 1920s home on Lake Jackson. He still lives there, although it has been renovated over the years. The comfortable sitting area of the rambling, multi-level home is reminiscent of a rustic retreat with its hardwood floors and ceilings, a fireplace and adequate wall space for the display of trophies brought back from Africa or British Columbia. In British Columbia the world traveler spent two weeks on horseback and heating cold river water to wash in.
"The thing about hunting," he says of this style of vacationing, "is that you get to see things non-hunters would never see."
Where Next?
On a Caribbean cruise that Keiber and his wife Sharon took earlier this year for the pleasure of their grandchildren, he met a lady who told him it was her 37th cruise.
"I should keep track of all the places I've been," he said a bit regretfully. "I know I've been to more South American countries than I haven't." And then there was China, Cuba, Italy, Botswana, Australia and New Zealand. Last year alone he had taken, with various family members, seven trips. And next? Well "probably Zimbabwe." Depending of course on the political atmosphere present at the time.
Yet with all his travels Sebring ranks as his favorite city in the world. The Keiber family roots are deep here. His children all graduated from Sebring High School. And it's here where he can share his talents with the community. This is where he plays a leadership role in the Boy Scout Council of Highlands and Hardee counties; where he serves as a vice president of the Highlands County Habitat for Humanity; where he is a member of the benevolent Sebring Firemen, Inc. organization. He is also a past president of the Sebring Chamber of Commerce and attends most of the chamber mixers - when he's in town.
It's difficult to separate his hobbies from his other less than routine activities. In addition to hunting and fishing he likes to scuba dive and ski, and when relaxing at home he may well broaden his boundaries watching the History Channel.
His diverse lifestyle, he explains, is simply a result of getting "bored quickly."
It's no wonder he needs a fitness center in his home on the lake.
"It helps me keep fit for the trips."
And he looks fit. Retirement has been good to him. And for the community he calls home.
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