Utah Vietnam veteran overcomes obstacles to serve his community

SALT LAKE CITY — Looking back on the number of projects Keith Mauerman has done over more than 50 years, it's enough to fill a book.

Literally.

Jenny Mauerman has collected photos into a memory book of the many things her 80-year-old husband has built over the decades.

"He put together a swing set for the kids. He built a toy box for our first child," she said, perusing the pages of the book during an interview at her Orem home on Monday. "(He) remodeled our kitchen."

All told, it's certainly an impressive number of accomplishments.

"But the amazing thing," Jenny Mauerman added, "is that he does it all without his legs from the knee down."

Vietnam War service

Keith Mauerman lost his legs in 1970 while serving in Vietnam. He spent a year in the hospital.

"It was kind of hard," Keith Mauerman remembered of that time. "You go into a period of denial, and you start thinking, 'Well, wait a minute, this wasn't supposed to happen to me.'"

However, he added, "You just learn to accept it, and you do what you have to do."

That meant getting busy with his hands. Keith Mauerman has always loved building things, and over the years, he's racked up an impressive number of accomplishments.

"Sometimes it's not easy, and you have to learn how to do things a little differently than normal people do," he said. "It always takes me a lot longer, but you just persevere, and it gets done."

He doesn't just do these projects for himself or his own family. His neighbors in Orem told KSL-TV his spirit of service extends much farther than that.

"He does everything," said Joyce Ward, who lives in the neighborhood. "There isn't anything that he doesn't try to tackle."

'He's willing to help others'

For example, Ward said, last winter during a big snowstorm, she heard a snowblower that didn't go away. She wondered whose it was.

"I came out and looked out my window, and saw it was Keith Mauerman – with two prosthetic legs – blowing my snow off my driveway, and I just wept" she said, becoming emotional. "What a wonderful man that doesn't let his disability define him."

Jenny Mauerman said her husband is just that way.

"He also helped some people remodel their homes. He built cabinets for some people," she said. "He's done water heaters, disposals for people."

In total, Jenny Mauerman estimates there are "maybe 40 houses in our neighborhood that he has done something for people ... He's willing to help others."

But if you ask Keith Mauerman about it, he just smiles.

"I don't have a lot to brag about," he said, laughing.

Put simply, this veteran learned long ago how to serve in Vietnam, and he's been doing it ever since.

"I like to do what I can when I can," he said.

His neighbors said it doesn't go unnoticed.

"He's taught us all that we need to look past what we can't do," said Ward, "and see what we can do – and do it."

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