Every day I continue to think of Keith... It's hard to believe that he passed away over a month ago - his memory is so vivid, it seems that it was just yesterday.  Please excuse me for repeating my earlier words.

I am a very lucky man, for I was fortunate to know Keith Withey. 

How do you say goodbye to a friend?  How do you recognize a lifetime of accomplishments?  The answer to both of these questions is quite simple – You don’tsay goodbye and there’s certainly no way to properly recognize Keith’s lifetime of service and achievements.

Perhaps, we can thank Keith for just being who he was.  We can also thank his family for sharing him with us.  We can also reminisce about his endless accomplishments.

As a teacher, he set the bar very high for his students and his friends, but he set the bar even higher for himself.  He was a selfless gentleman, who always put others before himself.

As a young man he found engineering provided the challenge his inquisitive mind needed.  As if that wasn’t enough, he decided to cross an ocean for new opportunities.  Canada became his new home and teaching his new vocation… talk about a win-win situation for both Canada and the students of the Peel Board of Education.

It was at the Woodlands School where I met Keith, and it was admiration at first sight.  His work ethic was beyond compare, his attention to detail was impeccable.  He was a gentleman in all he did and with all his colleagues.  He laughed easily.  He seldom showed sadness, though I grew to spot it from time to time.  He was more apt to show disappointment, but never despair. He had unending compassion, consideration and understanding.  He could explain any concept in a myriad of ways that never made a student feel inadequate. He had little time for anyone who would give up without trying.

A measure of Keith’s value as a teacher was when he was chosen to establish a course in Engineering Fundamentals at the Grade 13 level – it may have been the only technical course ever to be taught at that level. Whenever a new optional course is offered in any discipline, there is no guarantee if it will last.  Success is solely in the hands of the students and their parents when it comes time to make course selections for the coming year. Keith’s engineering course enjoyed success from its outset.  This course, in many ways, contained the same material as a first-year university program. But, by offering the course in high school a student could determine more clearly if that vocation was suited for them – a big time and money saver.  However, this engineering course went beyond that.  In the words of just one student, “Engineering Fundamentals was the most valuable course I took in high school.  It was the only time that I was treated as an adult, with real life-skill problems put before me.”

Keith was much more than a teacher.  He became my best friend in school and one of only two friends that I have trusted explicitly throughout my life.  If I had a problem, he would drop everything to help, no matter if it was in teaching or in life.  I was very fortunate to meet and get to know Keith’s family.  I can’t think of anyone who was prouder of his children than Keith was of Nicki, Katie and Matthew.  His love for Diana was intense, obvious and everlasting.  Their mutual admiration was envious and to be emulated. Some of the happiest times for Val and I were when we visited their home or when they came to see us.  It was in their home that Val and I got to know John Crampton and his wife socially.  Usually I would laugh all the way home after such a visit – due to that British dry humour.

To say I will miss Keith, is much like saying tomorrow will follow today. I will treasure the happy memories and will always be a better person to have known such a wonderful person.  I will remember Keith working feverishly to complete two doll houses as Christmas presents for Nicki and Katie.  I will remember trying to follow Keith up a ladder, from a small row boat to Carl Inglis’ sailboat off of White Cloud Island in the middle of a storm, with each boat violently bobby in the opposite direction. I will remember vying for an Assistant Technical Director’s job against Keith and hoping he would be chosen – which thankfully he was.  I will regret not taking Keith’s advice about not retiring until I was 65, instead of leaving when I reached the “90 Factor”, which lowered my pension.  

In the words of a popular WW2 song made famous by Vera Lynn:

We'll meet again
Don't know where
Don't know when
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day
Keep smiling through
Just like you always do
Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away

Ever in your debt my dear friend…