Individual Details

Death

In the spring of 1992, forensics expert and crime writer Patricia Cornwell was moderator of a Richmond Forum panel discussion on DNA procedures. A large, elaborate model of a DNA molecule was a prop for the event. Heads turned when Catherine Keefe's friend exclaimed, "You have one of those in your basement, don't you?" She did, indeed -- a model built by her father, Dr. William E. Keefe, and later put on display at Virginia Commonwealth University's Massey Cancer Center. Dr. Keefe taught biophysics, microbiology, crystallography and biostatics as an assistant professor at VCU's medical campus. He had received his master's degree in biophysics there in 1964. . . .
Dr. Keefe died Dec. 2 at age 85. His family plans to scatter his ashes later in New England. He was born in Norfolk in 1923 and grew up during the Depression. He went to Old Dominion College (now Old Dominion University) and Virginia Tech. While he was at Tech, news of the Pearl Harbor attack came. He memorized the military physical exam eye chart so his poor vision would not keep him out of the Army, though it did prevent him from being a pilot, said his daughter, now Catherine Keefe Furr of Richmond. On the basis of his IQ test, he was assigned to the Army Signal Corps as a cryptographer, encoding and decoding messages, and was stationed in the Philippines, according to information provided by the family. He and his wife, Mary Barrett Keefe, built and sold five modest houses in Princess Anne County -- now part of Virginia Beach -- to raise money to continue his education. In 1958, they moved to Blacksburg in a Volkswagen with a rocking chair, sewing machine and a chest of drawers tied on the roof, his daughter said. He received his bachelor's degree at Virginia Tech the next year. They moved to Richmond in 1961. He continued to renovate the family's homes and fill them with sketches for inventions, his daughter said, including solar power devices, tide-powered generator turbines for the mouths of rivers and other ideas to improve people's lives. "He was a problem solver," she said. Dr. Keefe was the founder and co-owner of Calculab, a lab for analyzing kidney stones. He also was "a ferocious reader, sometimes reading three or four books at one time," his daughter said. His work was published in the journal of the American Institute of Physics and other scientific journals. "One time we were driving to Norfolk, and Dad was writing on the car window with his finger while he was driving. I asked what he was doing, and he told me it was just some quantum mechanics. He kept doing it, too," said his son, Bill Keefe Jr. of Reidsville, N.C. "He was from a whole different planet." Mrs. Keefe persuaded her husband to travel north of the Mason-Dixon Line for the first time in 1970, his daughter said, and they bought and renovated a house in Camden, Maine. "When Mother died, it was like half of a set was gone," his daughter said. "He was the scientist, she was the artist." In addition to his son and daughter, survivors include two grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and a brother, Robert D. Keefe of Norfolk. The family plans to scatter the ashes of both parents at their favorite place in Maine, along with those of their beloved cocker spaniels -- again inseparable.