Max Leipold

MEMORIES

Life is a play in three acts. My late father used to say this about wealth – the accumulation phase, the preservation phase and the distribution phase. I am saying it about the process of recalling  memories.

In our youth we don’t have many memories so there is little to for us to dig up

In our middle age, we’re just too busy building families and empires; so there is little time for us to dig up

In our latter years, we treasure these and willingly share them with friends as they remind us of the good days when life was what you made it. I have a number of such memories about Keith “Moosejaw” Mattison.

I first met Keith in 1969 (frightening to think that that was 45 years ago !!) when he joined International Business Machines. I had joined six years before and was at that time in charge of IBM’s Cape Town office when this young and friendly individual with a strange accent (the nickname comes from the town in Canada where Keith hailed from) and thick glasses walked into my office looking for a job. His appearance belied his ability and he got what he was looking for though I daresay possibly not the boss he was looking for !!  Apologies Keith but as my wife Carol is fond of saying to people who don’t know me all that well – take no notice of Max.

Four years later Keith was joined at IBM by a second North American native – Jerry Johnson who brought with him something known as Call 360; something which was state of the art stuff at that time and allowed IBM a foothold into the Old Mutual. Being one of ICL’s bastions in the Western Cape, this caused some concern to the then manager of ICL, one Humphrey Worthington-Smith. Amazing how time heals and conceals !

Keith and Jerry made a wonderful team – technically competent and highly sociable, they soon became known in industry circles as Tom and Jerry. Lovable.

My other interface with Keith was in Round Table which I joined in 1970 and left ten years later. Keith joined RT as well. I was delighted not only because of the talent that he brought to Table but also because it provided evidence of the fact that I must have become tolerable !! Keith is an accomplished musician and if any of you reading this attended a Round Table No 9 Melodrama you will have undoubtedly heard Keith tinkling the ivories. He is of course a much more accomplished musician than music-hall pianist but since I’m not into classical music, I will leave that to other contributors.

After 1980 our paths crossed less often and the frequency dropped further when we moved to Hermanus. I did however see Keith a couple of times a year on the occasion of lunches which served to reunite ex IBM employees.  I need to say that on each of these occasions Keith was as full of bonhomie as he was from the day I met him.

Go well my buddy !!

Max Leipold