@twobob: The OpenSSH client has a (couple of) keepalive feature (one of which is disabled by default) that *might* help. I came upon it for completely unrelated reasons (silly new cable modem/router), but it might help.
Code:
ServerAliveInterval 15
(The server can do the same thing in reverse, via ClientAliveInterval, cf. man ssh_config & man sshd_config).