Samuel Keene

A wonderful life ended when Samuel Neil Keene died quietly at home on November 5, 2015 .

Sam was born March 9, 1937, in Atchison, Kansas, to Eunice and Gene Keene, who, along with two sisters, Betty Lassen and Venita Martin, and grandson, Gideon Stairs have preceded him in death.

Sam met, and loved from the start, his fifth grade sweetheart, and future wife, Carman. They married in 1958 and were the parents of three daughters.

For 31 years they lived and raised their family in the mountains of Colorado, Coal Creek Canyon. Later they moved back to Kansas and lived for 16 years at Lake Wabaunsee before returning to Colorado.

Sam attended Allied School of Technology and excelled in his work, with his degree as a Tool and Die Maker. His employers were: Morrison Knudson Missile Construction, Dow Chemical Atomic Energy, and Coors Brewery.

Sam was a lifetime member of the Coal Creek Canyon Fire and Rescue Department. He was honored to serve his community for 20 years as a volunteer firefighter. He loved the outdoors on the back of a horse or motorcycle, in the bow of a boat, or hiking in the mountains.

Sam was a man of faith, holding the appointed high honor of Elder in the Eskridge Baptist Church, Eskridge, Kansas.

Years after moving from the Eskridge area a young man wrote Sam saying: "Thank you for showing me how to love my wife."

Sam was a man of example!

As a thinker and a craftsman, Sam often designed ingenious devices making mountain living easier. He designed and built his own wood splitter utilizing a large steel boar and old car. With the car wheel spinning in place, he would split their winter supply of wood.

When asked what He would like people to say about him, he said, "I would like to be remembered for being patient, kind and always cheerful. He certainly was!

Survivors include: his wife, Carman. His legacy are his three daughters, Belinda Matthews, Coal Creek Canyon, CO; Cynthia, "Cindy", Vair, Westminster, CO; Stephanie, "Stevie", Stairs, Newfoundland, Canada; three sons-in-law, Dirk, Keith and Dean, thirteen grandchildren, Jasmine, Riley, Courtney, Victor, Bonny, Elizabeth, Georgia, Charlotte, Sam, Nikki, Ally, Jamie and Jerra, his sister, Donna, sisters-in-law, Bobbie and Peggy brothers-in-law, Don, Bob and Lynn.

Sam's gentle and humble countenance, patience and example of long suffering touched countless lives in a positive manner and he will always be admired and missed by many.

Desired memorial contributions may be made to Gideons International at The Denver Table Mountain Camp, P.O. Box 715, Wheat Ridge, CO 80033.

Funeral Service information can be read on the web site: CSCcares.com

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads his white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. He is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch him until at length he hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says: "There, he is gone!" "Gone where?"

Gone from my sight. That is all. He is just as large in mast and hull and spar as he was when he left my side and he is just as able to bear his load of living freight to his destined port.

His diminished size is in me, not in him. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: "There, he is gone!" there are other eyes watching him coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: "Here he comes!" And that is dying.