Keith Edmund Templeton

Keith Edmund Templeton Keith was born on November 12, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, to Everett and Doris Templeton. He passed away at home in Olympia, Washington on February 12, 2013 after a months-long battle with lung cancer. At a young age, Keith moved to Kirkland, Washington, with his family. He attended Lake Washington High School along with his brother, Allen Templeton, and his sister, Anita (Templeton) Raines. During the summer after his sophomore year, Keith was working, picking blueberries, as many high school students did in those days. While working in the fields just south of Bellevue High School, he encountered an attractive, dark-haired girl. In keeping with his infamous, sardonic wit, Keith’s winning pick-up line was to ask the young lady if she ever shaved her legs. Fortunately, the relationship went steadily uphill from there. Keith and Glenda (Brockett) Templeton became engaged in 1963, while they were both students at the University of Washington, and were married on June 13, 1964. While in college, Keith worked on Foss tugboats during the summers to support his education, and he graduated from the UW in 1965. In the years that followed, Keith and Glenda raised three children: Bradley, Lisa, and Katherine “Becky” Templeton. During most of these years, Keith worked for the Bell Telephone Company in Seattle, while the family made their home in the Clyde Hill community adjacent to Bellevue. Keith was an active member of Bellevue’s Sacred Heart Catholic Church; he and Glenda led numerous “Marriage Encounter” and “Engaged Encounter” retreats, helping others to strengthen their relationships as they strengthened their own. He took his children hiking in the mountains; he attended their plays, their baseball games, their track and cross-country meets, their scouting events. He was a father who was there for his children at every milestone. Keith was a hard worker, handy with virtually every tool a man might own, and honed his legendary woodworking skills over many years. To this day, his handmade, heirloom furniture and other woodcraft items grace the homes of his wife and children. After they saw their three children through college, Keith retired from the telephone company, and he and Glenda moved to Olympia, where Keith worked 10 years for the State of Washington in the telecommunications division. He retired from the state in 1998, and he and Glenda purchased a second home in the Methow Valley area near Winthrop, Washington, where they became active members of that community, splitting time between Olympia and Winthrop. Keith’s legacy will be generations of healthy, active children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Without exception, his three children, their three spouses, and the eight grandchildren are fitness and outdoor enthusiasts, thanks to Keith’s passion for outdoor activities. Keith ran marathons and ultra-marathons well into his advanced years; he regularly completed hundred-mile bike rides up until the day he was diagnosed with cancer; he was a wizard on the cross-country ski trails; and steelhead and trout would tremble in their rivers and lakes when they saw Keith approach, rod and reel in hand. Keith’s progeny are champion runners and accomplished triathletes, cyclists, skiers and hikers; he inspired them all to countless accomplishments and lifetimes of active, challenging, outdoor endeavors. Keith was an enthusiastic early member of Olympia’s “Saturday Morning Live” running club; he belonged to both the Capital and Cascade bicycle clubs, and was a member of the Methow Valley Sport Trails Association. In these clubs and their abundant splinter groups, Keith found kindred spirits who shared his enthusiasm for fitness challenges with the wind at their faces. The friendships that he and Glenda cultivated from these groups have provided laughter, camaraderie, depth, richness and love to their lives. Keith is survived by his wife of 49 years, Glenda Templeton; children, Brad and Tammy Templeton, Lisa and Dan Hardebeck, and Becky and Ernie Neumann; grandchildren, Kenzie and Meghan Templeton, Emerson and Sawyer Hardebeck, and Kenaia, Sydney, Meissa and Jackson Neumann; as well as his brother, Allen, and sister, Anita. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Keith’s charity of choice, “Shining Hope for Communities,” at . Please share memories of Keith or leave condolences for the family in the Guestbook below.