Keith Ferris grew up a military brat on the grass flying fields of the 1930s. As a child, he had always hoped to fly in the U.S. Air Force. He attended college majoring in aerospace engineering and hoping for an Air Force commission on graduation.
While his father was stationed at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Keith spent part of his college freshman and sophomore years working as an artist in the Air Force Training Publications group in a building next to the airport’s flight line.
Upon learning he was not going to be able to get in the Air Force after all, he would abandon the engineering curriculum and return to the publications unit to pursue a career in aviation art.