Tributes to 'much-loved' former Horsham school head

Keith, who died on Sunday (October 2) aged 71, was head at Horsham’s Greenway School for nearly 30 years and has been described by many former pupils as ‘much-loved.’

Daughter Lucy said: “His number one passion was education and he really did give everything to Greenway.

“As well as being headteacher he was a maths teacher, football coach, caretaker and general handyman.”

Keith began his teaching carreer at Abbey Lane school in Sheffield in 1974 before going on to become deputy head at Acres Hill school in Sheffield in 1983.

He then completed a masters degree in education and took over as headteacher at Greenway in the Easter of 1986 – where he remained until 2015.

Through Greenway, and with the support of his staff, Keith became involved with the wider community in Horsham.

The school’s choir would visit nursing homes to sing and entertain residents and every December Keith opened the school to give Christmas dinner to local elderly people.

He championed affordable childcare and provided breakfast and after school clubs, as well as 'childminding' in the school holidays.

He also successfully campaigned for the school to become grant-maintained and was therefore able to keep Greenway's school kitchen open when all other West Sussex schools closed theirs.

He even frequently helped with food shopping for the school himself – filling up several trollies with dozens of loaves of bread, pints of milk and sacks of potatoes.

He also participated in many educational conferences and was involved with the training of new teachers from both Chichester University and Penn State University in the USA.

Although education was his first passion, he also had a love of football and was a huge Manchester United fan.

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He also enjoyed playing golf and took part in several of the Henry Cooper charity golf tournaments held in Horsham in the early 2000s.

He also had a love of DIY and frequently used his ‘handyman’ skills at Greenway where he devoted almost 30 years of his life.

Facebook followers in Horsham named him as their favourite teacher earllier this year.

Keith, who lived in Worthing, leaves daughters Lucy and Jenny, son Joe and four young grandchildren.