EDWARD THOMAS KEATING

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University of California San Diego

EDWARD KEATING Obituary

KEATING, EDWARD THOMAS Ed died peacefully on Monday, January 7, 2013, surrounded by his loving family. Born in Brooklyn, New York on June 16, 1926, Ed was raised an only child in Piermont, New York, on the Hudson River, by Edward Paul Keating and Jennie Olson Keating. Ed graduated from Holy Cross College, joined the Navy, and entered submarine school. He served as an officer on submarines in the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf. Ed met Pat through his college roommate, who had just married her sister, Irene. He and Pat corresponded, then dated for two years, and married on September 1, 1950. After retirement from the Navy, Ed graduated from Harvard Business School. His career included work with Raytheon, Picker Nuclear, and as president of DatagraphiX, Inc., a subsidiary of General Dynamics. In his free time, Ed taught business at Northeastern College, and later was active on the Advisory Board of the Salvation Army and the Board of Overseers at UCSD. Ed was a scout leader and coached Little League. He loved swimming, fishing and camping with his family and enjoyed discussions, arguments and conversation with people - all people. Ed loved to travel. He was a history buff and enjoyed researching places he visited. Dedicated to his family, Ed was a loving and supportive parent, inspiring and challenging his children and grandchildren to reach their full potential through education and being caringly responsible. He is survived by his beloved and loving wife, "Patti", his son, Edward (Meg), and daughters Kristine, Kimberly, and Kara (David), grandchildren, Kieran (Charles), Robyn (Eric), Michael, Maureen, Nicole, Renee, Amanda, John and Joseph, and a great-granddaughter, Isla. His Memorial Mass was held at All Hallows Catholic Church on January 11, 2013. Donations in remembrance of Ed may be made to The Salvation Army or Holy Cross College. Everyone will remember his great smile. He will be deeply missed.

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Published by San Diego Union-Tribune on Jan. 20, 2013.

Memories and Condolences
for EDWARD KEATING

13 Entries

Joy Hansen

February 15, 2013

Pat,
My Prayers and Deepest sympathy to you and your family on the loss of your wonderful husband. Mr. Keating was my special friend and loyal patron at Long's in PB. His kindness to me and my staff was very much appreciated. It was his smile, sense of humor and love of conversation that I will remember. May you be blessed with those Happy memories, too.

Lucy Cianflone

February 8, 2013

Our sincere sympathies to Mrs. Pat Keating and all your family. We pray for your comfort in knowing that Ed was called home to heaven by his Lord Jesus. What a wonderful reunion of friends and family awaits him there. We are keeping you in our prayers.

Sincerely,

Lucy Cianflone and Family

Bud Suiter

January 27, 2013

Memories of Edward T. Keating
Ed Keating was president of DatagraphiX, Inc. and my boss.
But he was more than that. For example, he liked to fish. DatagraphiX fishermen banded together in the mid-1980s to fish for tuna. A few DatagraphiX employees, like Steve Carnahan, Larry Kress, Chuck Rowlands, Don Bergstrom, and me joined Ed on one trip. There were 29 fishermen and seven crew aboard, mostly men we didn´t know who liked the chances of fishing southwest of Ensenada, Mexico. We left the Ensenada port on the Susarrey brothers´ Ensenada Clipper in the evening and were on the fishing grounds at 6 AM the following morning, everyone trying to be first in the water, first to hook a fish. As I recall, Don Bergstrom was first that day. Ed took me under his wing and made the time to show me the best way to put mackerel bait fish on the hook to entice yellow tail to bite. We were into yellow tail tuna and Ed caught three big ones. His famous grin was displayed often that day. I caught a beauty, too. Thanks, Ed.
As President, Ed was always prepared. No matter what breaking news you reported to him, he always seemed to have heard about it before you got there. One example about just how well-prepared he was came from watching him in action at the quarterly performance reviews at General Dynamics headquarters in St. Louis. General Dynamics owned DatagraphiX. Ed would bring more viewgraphs (in the days before PowerPoint) for his presentation than any other General Dynamics division head. The stack was usually a foot or more tall and was prepared by the finance and planning departments feeding data to Tom Murrel´s visual arts department which produced the final result. Including hundreds of revisions. That required a lot of midnight oil every quarter and annually for the strategic plan and the operating plan. Ed wrote reminder notes on the margins of the slides in red ink. He´d review them for days in advance. In St. Louis, he never showed all the slides, but all the attendees knew he had them. I always suspected it was Ed´s strategy to overwhelm the audience with the threat of showing them all, and thereby reduce audience questions from around the table. Ed was prepared.
It took a while for Ed to trust a new employee like me to do the right thing. I´d just taken over the planning department of DatagraphiX in 1978. I inherited a planning department that was well respected, particularly the work of Don Jackson, who headed market research.
Ed´s direct boss at General Dynamics, Guy Fiske, was hired to expand the commercial operations of General Dynamics, of which DatagraphiX was a key part. Fiske had come from ITT where he´d had a stellar track record of acquisitions under Chairman Harold Geneen. Fiske´s goal was to increase commercial revenue from 20% to 50% of the total General Dynamics revenue. He decided to use DatagraphiX as the expansion vehicle for buying other companies in data products. Ed was worried. He´d fought hard to make DatagraphiX grow and prosper since he´d taken over. One mistake with an acquisition that didn´t pan out would destroy the gains Ed had made with DatagraphiX.
One of the first companies Fiske found to buy was Inforex in Burlington, MA. The Chairman of Inforex invited Fiske to come look at his company. With $50 million in profitable sales, Inforex was big enough to be interesting. Mike Terhune, Fiske´s right hand man, joined us on the corporate jet to Boston. I represented DatagraphiX. We were treated to an expensive lunch at a famous restaurant in nearby Lexington and a well-orchestrated plant tour and presentation. After we flew back, it was my job to prepare a recommendation on Inforex. I turned it down on the basis that the proprietary hardware Inforex offered could soon be replaced by the new personal computers then coming into the market at one fourth the cost. Inforex wanted $50 million for the company. A year later, Inforex came back again asking $2 million. Ed was pleased with how that worked out. I started to be accepted. Although the DatagraphiX planning department developed a data base of 262 companies to acquire, we never bought one. That was a tribute to Ed´s caution. It was safer that way. Soon Guy Fiske would be gone. Ed gained a lot of respect from the rest of the General Dynamics staff for his caution and his conservative financial projections that he always exceeded.
But Fiske did approve a joint venture laser printer program with Siemens, AG, Munich, Germany, that DatagraphiX staff presented to him after Inforex fell through. We believed this was lower risk with higher upside potential. After several years, the printers became very profitable. This program was featured on the General Dynamics annual report cover. Ed was very pleased with this result.
Ed liked gray Cadillacs. When he drove past employees in the parking lot, he would often give them the ‘Keating stare.' They knew Ed was watching. You always knew Ed was watching. He wanted nothing negative ever to reflect badly on DatagraphiX.
There was always a tussle between the heads of sales and marketing (Bill Porter or Rich Steele), engineering (Charlie Springer or Terry Anderson), field service (Tom Murrel) and production (Bob Walton). Marketing always wanted more new products and features that worked, engineering was always overworked, undermanned and slightly behind marketing´s schedule, and production couldn´t always build the product the way it was designed. Keeping the products running in the field required all of those groups to cooperate. Ed somehow managed to pull that off placing DatagraphiX in a dominant first place in computer output to microfilm printers. But not without bruised feelings, heated conversations and a lot of tough love. Ed was pleased.
When General Dynamics decided to sell DatagraphiX in 1986, Ed led the effort for a management buyout of the company. It didn´t work out, but Ed got huge kudos from the 2500 DatagraphiX employees, Ed´s alter family, for trying to save the company for those who had built it.
Bud Suiter 1-24-13

Jim Simpson

January 24, 2013

Mrs.Keating and Family:
We were saddened at the news of Mr.Keating's passing. I consider myself very fortunate to have known and served under Mr.Keatings leadership as a field service manager. He was supportive of our efforts in the field and his attendance at our managers meetings were always a highlight for each of us.

My family and I extend our sincere condolences and pray for you comfort and strength in this time of great loss.

Bruce Allen

January 23, 2013

Mrs. Keating & family,
I joined DatagraphiX in 1976 when I left the RAF in the UK. I met Mr. Keating on several occasions through the next few years & it was always a pleasure I believe he was one of natures gentlemen.
Please accept mine & Allan Peake's condolences on you loss.

January 23, 2013

Memories of Ed & Pat Keating are always among the dearest. Ed was a Mentor and friend to Charlie. our entire Springer family experienced a variied, enriched, and interesting life, thanks to the opportunities provided by Ed at Datagraphix! My love and prayers to Pat and all the Keating family. MaryAnn Springer & Family

Jeannie Bergstrom

January 22, 2013

So sad to hear of Ed's passing. I personally have such sweet memories of both him and Kara aboard the Datagraphix fishing trips with my dad Donald Bergstrom. Although both mom and dad are unable to post a reply themselves, I know they both cherish him dearly as a boss and friend. May the God of all comfort be with you. God Bless.

Bonnie Alexander, formerly Berger

January 22, 2013

Dear Mrs. Keating and family,
My sincere condolences and sympathy to all of you.
Wishing you strength in this difficult time and many fond memories of Ed.

Jim Benham

January 22, 2013

Ed Keating was very good leader and nice man.
I will really miss him. GOD be with you!

Chaplain Ray Fritz

January 22, 2013

Our condolences to Mrs. Keating, family, and friends of LT Keating's. We are grateful for Edward's dedicated and courageous service to our country aboard U.S. Submarines. To our "Brother of the Phin" we say, "Sailor, rest your oar. We have the watch. Rest in peace." -- Rev. Ray Fritz, National Chaplain United States Submarine Veterans, USSVI.

January 21, 2013

Dearest Pat and Family, We were so sorry to hear thta Ed had left us. He was such a good friend and a great gentleman. He will be missed. We enjoyed his company, his smile and wit. Pat remember our trip to Europe Ed keep us up to date on our history. What a man. Our hearts are sad but we feel blessed to have known him and you. God Bless you all much love. Rudy and Marilyn Regalado Borrego Springs

January 20, 2013

Ed, Bill and I are so sad about losing you, You were one of the nicest and loving friend we had. We will always remember our good times together and we miss you and will always pray for you, we love you and know you are happy in heaven. always your devoted friends. Kay and Bill

Gordon Hofer

January 20, 2013

Mrs. Keating and family,
Please accept my sincere condolences on Ed's passing. He was a man to be admired and respected, and he certainly always treated me with fairness and respect. I'm grateful for the opportunities I had at DatagraphiX under his direction. He was a good man.

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