Retired Kentucky Supreme Court Justice James E. Keller of Lexington, an influential judge who was twice president of the Kentucky Circuit Judges Association, died Monday, court officials announced. He had cancer.

“The strength of his personality and character and the depth of his intellect and integrity made Jim Keller an exemplar for a generation of Kentucky’s trial judges,” Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr. said in a statement. “The Kentucky Court of Justice mourns his loss.”

Justice Mary Noble, who served with him on Fayette Circuit Court, said in an interview that Keller “was a real-life person who liked to help people work things out. The most outstanding thing about him was that he focused exclusively on the person he was talking to and made you feel like you really knew him.

“He was one of the best friends I ever had,” Noble said. “He was a great guy.”

Keller was known statewide for his attempts to improve the court system for ordinary people.

As a circuit judge, he co-founded the Parents Education Clinic, a clinic to teach divorcing parents about the emotional implications for children of divorce; and Kids’ Time, a clinic to help elementary students understand and cope with divorce. The clinics have served as a model for a program that is now used in many Kentucky jurisdictions.

He also co-founded the Mediation Center of Kentucky, a nonprofit organization that offers the services of trained mediators to people who want to resolve their disputes outside a courtroom.

Keller was appointed to the state high court in 1999 and elected to a full term the next year. He retired in 2005 and had practiced law with Gess Mattingly Atchison in Lexington.

There will be a memorial service at 2 p.m. Saturday at Kerr Brothers Funeral Home, 3421 Harrodsburg Road in Lexington. Visitation will also take place Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

According to a biography presented at his retirement ceremony, Keller, who was born in Harlan, was admitted to University of Kentucky law school after only three years of college at Eastern Kentucky University, which he attended on a football scholarship.

He served as master commission, then as circuit judge from 1976 to 1999.

On his retirement from the Supreme Court, he said: “I have attempted to serve by upholding the existing law, but advancing it when necessary.”

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189.