Keith Gordon Hartley: [Heath 1948–56]

Head and shoulders of Keith Hartley
A recent photograph of Keith Hartley

Keith Hartley died on after a short illness at Sue Ryder’s Hospice in Oxenhope.

He always talked very fondly of his days at Heath Grammar School. He was a great rugby player and captained both Heath Grammar School 1st XV and Yorkshire Schoolboys 1st XV. Heath set my father up for a further experience of a lifetime at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he initially studied languages and then social anthropology. Before then he had already met his wife to be, Megan Linda Hartley (Crossley and Porter). Sadly she died in 2018.

He was picked up on the ‘milk round’ by Cortaulds after his final year at Cambridge. From there he rose the ranks and travelled the world (eastern bloc, Japan, Southern Africa, Cuba — he went to most countries) to become a lead manager in export sales.

In between his working travels he had three children, Andrew, Duncan and Rachel, with Linda. They rarely saw him when young! He later brought them north in the late 1980s to Ilkley, where he and Linda lived to their end.

He loved the arts and spent a lot of his time promoting the arts and fund raising for the arts (he was a primary fundraiser for what was called West Yorkshire Playhouse — recently renamed Leeds Playhouse). His principle hobbies were books and sport — he ran his own bookshop in Skipton as a hobby for 20 years.

Our Dad was a real character. If you met him, you would remember him. He loved humour and loved throwing bricks into the still ponds of others to cause a reaction.

They will be greatly missed. We, their children, have organised a concert which is in part in remembrance of them and in part in memory of their love of the arts. This is to be held at at St Margaret’s Church, Ilkley when our mother’s old choir Cantores Olicanae will be singing Mozart’s Requiem.

We are extremely grateful for the education Heath and Crossley & Porter gave to our parents. Their life chances were enriched immensely by their education at these two fabulous institutions.

Duncan Hartley

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