If you ask him, Nelson Keeler will say he was just doing his job when he supported small West Virginia businesses for NASA contracts, but nominations from two of those businesses made him this year's Minority Small Business Champion.

Keeler directed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) facility in Fairmont from 2001 until January of this year.

"All government organizations have a small business program, and of particular note is the minority set-aside," Keeler explained.

"NASA is one of the leading government agencies that is very supportive of small business and always meets or exceeds its goals. Within that framework, I had the good fortune ... to have the ability to look for and work with small businesses that I believed could make a difference and at the same time support or fulfill my needs."

One of those was ProLogic Inc. of Fairmont. ProLogic CEO Jay Reddy was one of Keeler's two nominators.

"NASA has a very critical mission for the nation, and there are a lot of very technologically advanced programs... so you'd expect the kind of contract support they look for to have high requirements," Reddy said. "(Keeler) looked at a company like us, saw the technology and the competency and said, 'These guys can do the job as well as the bigger guys.'"

Keeler's thoughts about ProLogic and about Reddy show what makes him a real small business champion.

"I think we provided him his first government contract, and today he's a shining example of success," he said.

Chirag Patel, president of DN American of Fairmont, also nominated Keeler. Like Reddy, Patel received his first full-time contract with support from Keeler.

"He always served as a good mentor in terms of being able to share business guidance," Patel said. "If I had questions or an issue, in general business terms he was there to help provide some guidance."

"It was my pleasure to work with them and to have the opportunity to give them their first chance to prove themselves, which they've done," Keeler said.

Keeler said he has been fortunate to work with other small West Virginia businesses, among them Galaxy Global Corp. of Fairmont and Performance Results Corp. of Morgantown.

After five years in West Virginia, Keeler moved back to his native New England in January to work for the U.S. Department of Transportation's Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, Mass.