I was asked to deliver remarks about Keith at his memorial this past spring, and I had occasion to see them again just now. In re-reading them, it occurred to me that others may find them of interest. Find them below.
"Thanks for giving me a chance to say a few words.
Keith joined our department at UCSD in 2008, after a very long stint at the University of Massachusetts. Keith was, to put it mildly, very well established at UMass: He knew the system well, he knew the people well, and the people knew him well. He let that go for a new adventure, to a system he didn’t know, to many people he didn’t know, and to people who knew him, but mainly by reputation. He was 65 years old at the time, an age at which many of us begin to slow down, settle in, perhaps arriving at a time when we look back and reflect on our accomplishments. Not Keith. He got here, and became more productive perhaps than at any point in his career. All of this took great courage. But courage was something Keith was not short of, a fact that all of us have been very aware of for the last few years.
Most of us know Keith for his academic accomplishments – his incredible productivity, the fact that he pretty much defined an entire field of study that will continue for decades to come, and much more. I want to talk a bit about Keith as he was as a colleague in our department, and I’d like to talk specifically about a very important role that he had with us, namely, as chair of our graduate admissions committee. Those of you who are academics know that graduate admissions is very possibly the most important committee in the department. It decides who the graduate students in the department will be, and the graduate students are the lifeblood of any department. Given his history of amazing mentorship, it was natural for Keith to join our graduate admissions committee shortly after arriving here, and as with all things he did, his natural tendency to lead led him to chair the committee. He was a great grad admissions chair, because it played to all of Keith’s strengths. It played to his strength of organization – Keith seemed to be able to get to know everyone, by name, who they are, where they came from, who else they knew. He would take notes on everyone by writing names and words on pieces of paper, no fancy computer databases. (And before anyone thinks that this must have been inefficient, remember Keith’s incredible productivity – efficiency was not a problem for him.) Chairing graduate admissions played to Keith’s effectiveness: You knew he would get the task done, just like everything else he did. It played to his good judgment, as he would know just who would be the right students to admit. Most importantly, it played to his trustworthiness, his even-handedness, his fairness. When Keith made a call, it was not because of an agenda, or because of ideology, but because it was the right, best, fairest decision. And of course, I use grad admissions to illustrate all of this, but this was how Keith did everything: His research, his interactions with his colleagues, how he led his lab, how he interacted with family and friends. It is for all of these reasons that we celebrate Keith.
I was lucky to work closely with Keith not only on department matters, but as a researcher. We co-advised Liz Schotter, only one of the literally dozens of brilliant graduate students and post docs that Keith mentored to successful careers and successful lives. Of all of Keith’s accomplishments – and there are many – I’m going to guess that his mentorship of these incredible minds was his proudest. And that only seems right, and it seems comforting, as we know that through these great people, Keith’s work, his ethic, and his influence will live on for many years to come.
To Sue, Ashley, Jonathan, and the rest of Keith’s family: Thank you for sharing Keith with us all these many years. He made our department a better place than it would have been without him. And for that, we are grateful, and we celebrate.
Thanks."