Mike ... Best to compare the problem account and host to a working user@host pair. Do you have SSH working anywhere? So the first thing I would recommend is to back away from this particular one and see if you can get that SSH client working to some other Linux (or UNIX) host with any account there.
You mentioned "operator". Check that his .ssh directory is owned by that ID. One place SSH is picky (and for which I am thankful though it is a hassle) is about ownership of the complete path to the key files. Now you were using password authentication, so this may not apply. (Why did you run 'ssh-keygen' if you're using password authentication?) Also check how the target account was created. I create accounts by hand (edit /etc/passwd, create a home directory for the user, and so on) and that requires running 'pwconv' at times for the shadow file to be in synch.
