My friend, Keith

I had gotten out of touch with Keith in the last 5 or 6 years. I regret that, but it happens. People make new connections. Take new jobs. Get married. It happens. You can't go back and undo things.


We met in 1979, at a Tampa ad agency where I took a job. CCM, Corporate Communications & Marketing was a small agency with some very big clients including Jim Walter Corporation, Celotex, and Shands Hospital. I came in as an art director. Keith had just transitioned to part-time so that he would have more time to pursue freelance illustration work. Keith considered himself an illustrator first and a designer second. The agency's clients just didn't have enough illustration work to keep Keith busy. Although I always thought that Keith was a very good designer, he always concentrated on illustration. Over the years, we collaborated on many projects. When I look through my portfolio and also through several boxes of archived samples I've kept, I see Keith's illustrations everywhere. He was very talented, prolific, and versatile.

After a stint in the Navy, Keith graduated from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. By the time we ran into each other at CCM, Keith had developed a distinctive style, regardless of whether he was working in airbrush, pen and ink, or pencil. But when the agency was thick into the crushing deadline of an annual report, Keith was quite adept at handling the triangles, t-squares, rapidographs, markers, and x-actos that traditional design, layout, and production required. Keith and I worked in the trenches on many projects at CCM in the early 80s. We were part of the very last generation that used those non-digital tools of the trade.

Keith eventually left CCM to pursue his freelance illustration career. We remained close friends. We played soccer in a men's indoor league for a couple of seasons and over the years, we went to many Rowdies soccer games. We also had similar musical interests and attended a number of concerts. After I left CCM in 1983, I began freelancing for myself, working out of a studio in my home. After a while, Keith and I, along with Joe Petralia and one other designer, decided to rent studio space in a Dale Mabry office building in mid-town. We ended up establishing, for a period of time, what would become a gathering place and networking hub for Tampa Bay freelance designers and artists. The local chapter of the Graphic Artist Guild was born in that suite of studios.

Although we each had our separate businesses and clients, we all collaborated and worked with each other on various projects for about eight years. But over time, one by one, this group of artists went their separate ways. Joe left to be a founding partner in Peak Barr Petralia Beity, a Tampa ad agency. Keith and I were the last ones left. The office space became too much to handle. I was offered a job by an agency for which I had been freelancing, so we closed down the space. Keith set up a studio at his home.

That was probably when we started to lose touch. I divorced and remarried. Keith explored some business ventures unrelated to design and illustration. A number of years went by and then sometime around 2003 or so, Keith and I met in Tampa to attend a Lightning game. I learned that he had been through a bout with colon cancer. He seemed different. Older, thinner, and maybe a bit more mellow. After the game we had a couple of drinks at Four Green Fields, the Irish pub. We had a good time that night and got caught up with what had been going on in our lives, but I never saw him again after that.

I never had any "best friends" when I was growing up. As an adult, all of the meaningful friendships that I've had, have been made through working relationships. Keith was one of those. I'll always remember him as a very good friend. A long-time, close friend from whom I grew apart. I learned a few weeks ago that Keith passed away in 2009. The cancer had returned and ultimately, his heart gave out.