Peter Lay

Keith and I have known each other since 1967 when we both worked for IBM in Johannesburg. We then lost contact but re-established it when I joined UCT where we worked together for almost 12 years. He was without a doubt one of the smartest lecturers I’ve ever worked with - totally unmanageable, but equally totally reliable.

 

One of my fondest memories of Keith had nothing to do with work. Glenda and I went to the Mattison home to play bridge with Keith and Ruth. The evening progressed quite well with a lot of chatter and a lot of beer being drunk. During the course of the evening, Keith made a couple of “interesting”plays which irritated partner-Ruth immensely. This reached a climax when Keith, in order to get the lead, played an ace over Ruth’s king. This incensed Ruth so much that she screamed at him, picked up the family Bible (which must have weighed about 2kg’s) and hurled it at Keith. He ducked then turned to me and, grinning, said something about her throwing arm. Glenda and I just watched in amazement, but this was the nature of Keith and Ruth’s marriage – intense highs and lows. Two minutes later everything was back to normal and the incident forgotten.