* Keith Taylor was laid to rest yesterday after a tough battle with cancer. Keith was former Comptroller Dan Hynes’ chief of staff and a heck of a good guy. Hynes gave the eulogy at Keith’s Springfield funeral and he asked that I run a condensed version here. I was more than happy to oblige…
Thank you for this opportunity to honor my dear friend Keith Taylor. There is something so unfair about the events of these past few months. Unfair that a man who had such boundless energy died so young. That a man who enjoyed life so much had to suffer through his final few months.
I don’t think anyone in this church has met, or will meet, someone as unique and multi-faceted as Keith Taylor. He was an original blend of so many differing traits: a smart, genuine, loving, inquisitive, devoted, loyal, hard-working practical joker. Keith was anything but one-dimensional.
First and foremost, he was an historian and a scholar — but not just of U.S. or world history. He was a scholar of U.S. Presidents, famous wars and battles, professional baseball and football legends and championship teams, Kentucky Derby winners, rock and roll bands, Illinois high school basketball, and of course, Illinois government and politics. There was never a time that Keith wasn’t reading at least three different books, usually on totally divergent, and often totally obscure, topics. Retiring presidents have to form commissions to create their libraries, Keith’s is already built — there must be two or three thousand books at their home on Clearview.
Keith was a public servant. He believed that government was good, and that working for government was an honor. He didn’t get into politics for power or prestige or self-advancement. He did it because he wanted to believe in something. He had no tolerance for demagogues or phonies, and had no desire to spend time with back-slappers and opportunists. He was very decisive because he trusted his instincts, and his motives were always pure and direct.
Keith was a leader and a mentor. During my campaigns and while serving in office, I was extremely lucky to have had an incredibly talented group of young staff members — many of them are here today. Each and every one of them was shaped, molded and mentored by Keith. He tried to instill in them the values that he believed were important in the workplace and especially in government:
Number One: Work hard. The way to get ahead is to be the first person at the office in the morning and the last one to leave at night.
Number Two: You must start at the bottom and work your way up. There’s no room for prima donnas and no job is beneath you.
Number Three: Be loyal. Period. Keith believed in loyalty and would stay true to the bitter end.
Keith was revered in the office. He never once screamed at a staff member, yet people feared letting him down. They just didn’t want to disappoint him.
Keith was by far the most brilliant strategist of downstate Democratic politics Illinois has ever seen. Part of this goes back to his being a scholar. Keith was somewhat of a savant when it came to demographics and county election returns. He could tell you without hesitating what percentage of the vote Mike Howlett got in Alexander County in 1976 or which Democrats were able to win Adams County in the last two decades. On election night, Keith could look at a sampling of eight downstate counties with only 20% of the returns in, and he could tell you right then and there whether the election was won or lost. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of downstate legislators, county chairmen and precinct committeemen, as well as little factoids about each and every county and county seat.
Last week, when I got the call that Keith had passed, I was talking to my brother Matt about everything we all had been through together and what a special guy Keith was. My last comment to Matt was: “It’s the end of an era ….. because they just don’t make ‘em like him anymore”. And it’s really true. Keith came from that old school of politics that rested firmly on things like respect, loyalty and honor — things that have slowly faded away over the last decade of Illinois politics.
There will never be anyone like Keith Taylor. But we will remember him. And we will aspire to be like him. And we are all better for having known him.
