Keith Quincy

Dear Friends and Family, It is with great sadness that we report the death of Herbert Keith Quincy on August 15, 2017. His last breaths were taken at his home in Spokane, WA, in the comfort of his bedroom, as he had requested. His last days were shared by his wife Anna, his son Matthew, and several other family members. Keith was born in southern California in 1941 to Herbert and Irene Quincy. He had one younger brother, Kent Quincy. He spent his preschool years in Los Angeles. The family moved to the San Fernando Valley where Keith attended grade school and high school. His maternal grandparents, Harry and Anna May Stamp, were very influencial in his development. Keith's life was an extraordinary one. His athletic talents began to show in high school. Coaches recognized his skills, and he received a football scholarship to attend the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Keith was fortunate to be a team member playing in the 1961 Rose Bowl. He graduated with a degree in Philosophy in 1964. Keith continued at UCLA earning a Master's Degree in Political Science and then moved to Claremont Graduate School where he completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy. In 1963, Keith met and later married the love of his life, Anna Jane Moore, at Sepulveda Methodist Church. Together they had two children, Thean and Matthew Quincy. Keith and Anna celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary this year. Keith took immense pride in the professional development of his wife and was a supportive and loving husband and father. Keith also loved animals and had many pets in his life culminating with a horse ranch where he and his wife used natural horse training techniques to train horses for competition. In 1970, Keith took a teaching position at Eastern Washington University (EWU) in the political science department. He went on to serve as the Department Chairman for many years. Keith derived great satisfaction in the classroom and cherished his office hour discussions with his students. During the 1990's he had many international students from the Middle East who were preparing to be leaders in their home countries. The Quincy home has many gifts of thanks from these young leaders acknowledging his service as teacher and mentor. Of the many awards that Keith received in his professional career, he was most proud to have been recognized for Outstanding Teaching in Political Science at EWU by the American Political Science Association in 2000. Keith was a tenured professor when EWU’s football program faced economic troubles. Because of Keith’s athletic history and background in ecomonics, he was asked to head the committee to evaluate the problems and find a path to preserve EWU's football program. The committee’s findings saved the football program, and the speech that Keith gave garnered national attention. He was offered the position of Athletic Director at EWU, which he turned down because of his love of teaching. Keith’s conviction truly was that the classroom was his calling. Keith was a published author. He wrote several books on diverse subjects including politics, economics, and philosophy. In his retirement, he turned to fiction and published two novels. In 1982, Keith began a new research project spawned by a Hmong student Keith mentored. First, Keith published the “History of the Hmong people.” He continued his study, exploring the Hmong involvement with the CIA’s secret war in Laos. Keith’s research and the first person accounts from a lifelong friend, See Vu, along with hundreds of other Hmong survivors, helped him to expose hidden truths in his book “Pa Chay's Wheat: The Hmong and America's Secret War in Laos.” Keith had a passion and intensity in everything he did, whether it was studying, researching, writing, training, playing, or loving. It is with that same passion and intensity that he will be missed.