Lyle Keys

1925 - 2021

Lyle Oscar Keys

1925-2021

Mesquite, NV—Lyle passed away on July 17, 2021 at his home in Mesquite Nevada, at the age of 96, the age that he had predicted he would die. Here's his story in his own words.

I was born in Wibaux, Montana and spent the first eleven years of my life on a farm South of Wibaux. In 1936 we moved into the town of Wibaux, where I attended the Wibaux elementary and high schools, graduating with the class of 1943.

During WWII, I spent three years in the US Navy, most of it as an electronics teacher on a South Pacific Island. After the war, I wasted two years at Montana State University, after which, I spent a year working at the Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, then twelve months at Valparaiso Technical Institute in Indiana, where I earned an engineering degree. After seven years, spent first as a field engineer and later as a sales engineer, I settled in Salt Lake City with my new bride, Genevieve.

While working as the Engineering Director of a TV Station in Salt Lake, I founded an equipment sales company, Elsco, and later, a TV broadcast equipment manufacturing company, TeleMation, Inc., and a third company, Utah Scientific, Inc., which still prospers in Salt Lake City under different ownership. After retiring from Utah Scientific, I became involved with several other companies, primarily as an investor.

In the late 1990's I founded, and permanently endowed, The Mom Keys Fun Fund, in honor of my mother, which produces annual payments to meet the entertainment and recreational needs of residents of the Wibaux County Nursing Home.

I was preceded in death by my parents, Floyd and Hortense Keys, my only sibling Florence Keneipp, my first wife, Genevieve, my daughter, Jill and my son Cory, as well as my second wife, Melissa. I am survived by my daughters, Camille Keys of Salt Lake City and Mary Keys of Bozeman, my son, Kerry Keys, of Washington DC, my grandchildren, Talia Keys and Matthew Rothfels, and my one and only great-grandchild, Juniper Rothfels, all of Salt Lake City. I'm also survived by my step daughters, Pam Stewart and Linda Hilbert, and my step-son, Mike Iba.

As an atheist, I have found death particularly easy to contemplate – I will simply be gone. If I have a future, it is in the memories of my family members and those many people that I had the pleasure of knowing throughout my life.