David A Keith

David Keith was born in 1943 in Newfoundland where his father was stationed as a naval officer during the war, but he was raised mostly in Ottawa by his wonderful parents, Joan and Bob, with his younger siblings Bruce and Mimsie.

David and Bruce were close in age, only 19 months apart, which spelled Trouble for their parents and much-younger sister Mimsie from the get-go. Beloved bedtime stories to their own children told the tales of their many misadventures, lovingly dubbed “the bad-boy stories” … stealing the horse-drawn milk wagon, tying their sister to a tree with curlers in her hair. Each always claimed the other was the instigator. The truth may never be known. Mimsie forgave them their many antics involving her, helping them grow into the responsible men they eventually became.

David’s four children, Chris, Karina, Alice and Andy, were his pride and joy. The fact that they are all well-adjusted adults with loving partners whose families wish to spend time together is perhaps the greatest testament to David as a person and a father. Like David’s own father, his parenting style was patient and calm, which allowed his children to find their way and grow into the people they were meant to be.

David’s labour of love was building our family cottage on Georgian Bay, which took 10 years to build. It is the happy place for three generations of Keiths including now six grandchildren. Who knew when we started that David was an accomplished plumber, electrician and carpenter? It seems there wasn’t much he couldn’t do or figure out.

David bachelor’s degree was in Mathematics from Carleton University in 1966, which took an extra year to complete because he spent 1st year becoming a very fine bridge player. In 1969, David was part of the very first Masters in Computer Science graduating class at the University of Waterloo. It was there he discovered that working with computers was what he wanted to do.

David’s 40-year career, from 1969 to 2009, was in “cloud computing” involving “big data”, long before the terms cloud computing and big data were coined. He was in his element when he was working to understand the needs of his customers and writing software solutions that could slice and dice massive amounts of data like Magic.

David led the creation of several multi-million-dollar businesses for I.P. Sharp Associates, Reuters and the Globe and Mail. For Reuters and I.P. Sharp, he created ground-breaking financial, aviation and energy data products that were used by thousands of companies in 20 countries. For the Globe and Mail, he created ground-breaking products like GlobeInvestor and GlobeFund that were used by hundreds of thousands of Canadian investors. The teams he led and worked with to build these businesses were tightly-knit and smart and worked incredibly hard to meet impossible deadlines time and again. Not everyone loves what they do for a living but the expression “you don’t work a day in your life if you love what you do” epitomized David. He formed many life-long friendships with the amazing people he worked with over his career.

David also loved to play. He loved all manner of sports and games, especially squash, golf and, as previously established, bridge. Anyone who worked for him knew that the meeting was definitely ending on time if the start time of his squash game was approaching!

One of David’s most loveable qualities was his complete lack of hidden agenda. He had no airs, no façade. He was the original WYSIWYG, a tech term that means What You See Is What You Get. It was this quality along with his competence and humour that engendered respect and admiration from friends and colleagues alike.

David had a 15-year journey with Alzheimer’s that robbed us of the person he once was. David’s days at the cottage he built were cut short by too many years. We long missed his self-proclaimed “world’s longest underwater dives”, trying to dump him off the yellow tube as he crooned “Life is just a bowl of cherries” and playing all manner of games he loved. Although the disease took his speech, recognition and movement, his friendliness and gentle nature were evident right to the end. The staff at Belmont House in the final years of his life often remarked that he was one of their favourite residents.

David’s wife of 45 years was Jane. David lit a candle for their dinner every night for decades until he didn’t know how to anymore. They were a great team who loved each other with their whole hearts and were happy together to the end.

David died on October 10, 2025 from complications of Alzheimer’s. He was 82.

David leaves his wife, Jane, his four children Chris (Sue Fraser), Karina (Brian Thompson), Alice (Shawn Gill), and Andy (Julianna Greco-Keith), his brother Bruce (Nel) and sister Mimsie Rodrigue (Jeannot RIP), his six grandchildren, Ellie and Gillian (Chris), Kira and Adam (Karina), Robin and Georgia (Alice), and his many beloved nieces, nephews, cousins, and in-laws.

If you wish, donations can be made in his name to www.BelmontHouse.com or to the Sinai Health Foundation and directed to the "Reitman Centre for Alzheimer’s Caregiver Support and Education" (416-586-8203) or to a cause meaningful to you.

A celebration of David’s life will be held at the Globe and Mail Centre in downtown Toronto on November 9. If you would like to join us in honouring David’s memory, please RSVP as soon as possible:
https://tinyurl.com/RSVP-for-David

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