Obituaries

Keith McCamy

Keith McCamy

Greenport resident Keith McCamy died at his home at high noon Oct. 13, 2018, surrounded by his beloved family, dogs and cats. He was 80 years old.

Born Sept. 7, 1938, in Cambridge, N.Y., to Julia (Boggess) and James L. McCamy, Keith attended the University of Wisconsin/Madison, earning his Ph.D. in geophysics. He married sculptor Arden Scott in Madison in 1961, and the couple lived in New York City until moving to Greenport in 1978. Keith worked for many years as a seismologist at Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Research Center and published several papers on seismic refraction.

Fond of sports, Keith was especially passionate about ice hockey and played the game for many years. He served as the first manager of Greenport’s ice skating rink, becoming “King of the Zamboni,” and he counted learning to drive the ice-grooming machine among his greatest accomplishments. He also enjoyed sailing, both the usual kind and on ice, and belonged to the Orient Ice Yacht Club.

Keith was a great lover of music and possessed a prodigious capacity for memorization. He applied this talent to most of Gilbert and Sullivan’s patter songs, including perhaps the most difficult, “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” from “The Pirates of Penzance,” which he could perform word for word “without skipping a syllable.”

Predeceased by his brother, Colin, Keith is survived by his wife; his children, Kate, Angus, Megan and Ian; his grandchildren, Grace, Alasdair and James; and many devoted friends.

Memorial donations may be made to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach, NY 11978-7048 (eeh.org).

This is a paid notice.