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From the Northview 50th Anniversary website - In Memorium page:
"Keith attended Northview in the early to mid 60s. He was a great guy with lots of talent and a super sense of humour. It was difficult being Keith in 1963 as he was the only black student in the school that had a population of about 1200. I think of him often. After leaving Northview, Keith did Business Administration at Ryerson, and after graduation was hired by IBM. He did well and had just taken a promotion to Assistant Manager of their office in Hamilton when he was killed in a car accident on May 12, 1974. In addition to being a good athlete, Keith was a fine musician and I and several others from Northview often jammed with him. His dad was Cy McLean, a well liked jazz pianist on the Toronto nightclub scene; his mom Gladys worked at the Willowdale post office. He was an only child, and his death was a tremendous tragedy for his parents. Keith had a wide circle of friends; I heard his funeral procession was a mile and a half long. I was at law school in Vancouver when he died, and it wasn’t until a hot July day eight years later when I finally arrived at his grave in York Cemetery. There was no one around, and I found myself face down, prone on top of his grave sobbing out my grief - closest I could get to him. Such was the impact he had on those he touched." – Lorraine Beaumont & Don Windross
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Lorraine Beaumont (Harrison)
I have fond memories of Keith too. I didn't know him too well when I was in Grade 11 but enough for us to nod and say hello when passing. In Grade 11, if you recall, all students of that grade had to undergo a type of physical in the nurses' room. A doctor was present and basically took your height, weight, blood pressure and listened to your heart. We female students were given a large white paper cloth to put over our heads and it was to cover up upper half. I was patiently waiting to be called and when I was, I had to walk through the nurses general area to the private room where the Doctor awaited. While marching across who should be sitting there waiting to see the nurse but Keith. I did not expect to see anyone, let alone a really cute guy, while wearing my giant Kleenex-top. He smiled, I blushed and nothing more was said. However, that spring in my yearbook, Keith wrote, "Lorraine, next time you need a doctor, call Dr. Keith." Great sense of humour, great guy.
Bill Harany
Don, I think that you were at Keith's house late one night after a big dance at school. We were in the basement and guys were playing guitars and singing folksongs when Keith's father came home and asked if he could join in. He sat down at the piano and slowly and gently started playing along. Soon guys started to realize that Keith's father was a very hot piano player and the guitars were slowly put away as we all were enthralled by him. Norm Clark told me about 10 years ago that his father used to jam with Oscar Peterson; I'm not surprised. This is more about the family than Keith but it was am amusing event for me and when I think of K-baby, I'll always remember that night