Ken Keechl & Ted Adcock
LGBT rights activists
Ken Keechl and Ted Adcock. Photo by JR Davis.
By Steve Rothaus
Ken Keechl, a Fort Lauderdale attorney, died Sept. 1, eight months after his husband Ted Adcock’s death at 69 from kidney disease, and four months after learning he had advanced pancreatic cancer. Keechl was 60.
“Ken and Ted were together 27 years,” said their close friend, attorney Coleman Prewitt, who shared office space with Keechl since 2015.
“I met Ken in 2008 when I ran for the Fort Lauderdale City Commission. He was on the county commission. And we’ve been friends since,” said Prewitt, who didn’t win his 2009 election bid.
Keechl graduated from South Dade High School in 1980. Four years later, he received a history degree from Florida State University, and in 1987 earned an FSU law degree.
Decades ago, Keechl had a partner named Wally, who died in the early 1990s. About a year after Wally’s death, he met Adcock, according to Prewitt.
“[Ken and Ted] were good together,” Prewitt said. “They were both strong personalities, but they both made it work.”
Keechl was elected a county commissioner in 2006, defeating Jim Scott, a former Florida state senator appointed to the seat in 2000 by then-Gov. Jeb Bush.
He served until 2010. The last year of his term he spent as Broward mayor, chosen by his fellow commissioners.
“I ran for the commission not as a gay man but as a fiscal conservative and as someone concerned about the environment, but I am aware of the historic nature of becoming mayor and am proud of it,” Keechl told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 2009 when he became mayor.
After leaving the commission, Keechl focused on his law career.
“A lot of what he did was helping unmarried couples – almost always gay or lesbian couples – when they broke up, getting some justice for the one who had been left behind, or thrown out,” Prewitt said. “That was really hard to find, especially before we had marriage. A lot of people were left penniless.”
Keechl and Adcock wed Dec. 22, 2011, in New York, after the state legalized same-sex marriage earlier that year.
Keechl and Adcock worked tirelessly for South Florida’s LGBTQ community, Pride Center CEO Robert Boo said.
“HIV prevention was important when I first met with Ken,” Boo said. “Ted, I remember having a very strong interest in youth and making sure there were programs in the community for the youth.”
Adcock served on the center’s board. “He wanted to ensure that the center was successful. He helped govern the board and steered the center in the best possible direction,” Boo said.
The Pride Center several times honored Keechl and Adcock.
“Room 206, the room with the glass double doors, is dedicated to Ken and Ted,” Boo said.
In 2016, Keechl attempted the first of two political comebacks, running as a Democrat for a Florida House seat representing Fort Lauderdale. He lost in the general election to Republican George Moraitis.
In 2022, Keechl ran for a vacant Fort Lauderdale commission seat. After a vitriolic campaign, John Herbst defeated him.
Adcock died Dec. 29. Keechl learned he had cancer in early April, Prewitt said.
