Richard Duret Keightley

Richard was born in Berkeley in 1970 and grew up playing soccer, spending time with friends, and playing early computer games. Throughout his childhood and adult life, he met friends that lasted his lifetime. After attending Kenyon College in Ohio, Richard eventually moved to Los Angeles to be a successful screenplay writer. While he did write a few screenplays, the success part eluded him. He was, however, successful in other areas of his life. Richard met Robin Keightley in San Francisco in 1998, through their friends David and Candice. Richard is in fact most proud of the fact that he was able to convince Robin to marry him. In 2000 they tied the knot. In 2003 and 2006, Richard’s next two proudest moments followed with the births of their two children, Sophie and Preston.

For the next twenty-four years, Richard worked on providing for his family, being a good husband and a good father. Throughout Preston’s and Sophie’s years of soccer and volleyball, Richard proudly coached their many teams. He took his family on many trips across the US and abroad because he valued showing the world to his children. He also cherished his relationships with the family he married into.

He moved around a bit from one company to another and eventually settled at The Toro Company. Richard was able to express himself creatively. While he wrote a novel that did not get published and built a web application called “friendcrash” that garnered no users, he enjoyed the process of creating and dabbling in other fields. Before he passed, he was working on a comic book called “The Last Ninja”.

Regardless, Richard was pretty successful as a husband, father, and friend. He is proud of his marriage and the young woman and man that his children are turning out to be. Richard was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 51 and died 2 years and 10 months later. While he did not live as long as he wanted to, he did learn a few things during his time on this planet. He would like to share a few of those with you now.

First, as his father told him at his wedding, the best is the enemy of the good. Second, if you fall off your horse eight times, get on nine. Third, don’t be self-centered. Lastly, remember to say please and thank you.

On that note, I want to thank you for coming to my memorial service. Sorry, I could not be here to welcome you and thank you personally.

- Love, Richard