11/30/2022
The First Chair …Brendan Finn’s words
The ski industry, the Catskills and more specifically, the Hunter mountain community lost a legend and a great friend yesterday, but we will all be enjoying the riches of his friendship for years to come.
Certainly Keith Holmquist would be the last person to claim legendary status. His humility and wry sense of humor would never allow him to even think those thoughts. Undoubtedly he would come up with some self-deprecating phrase that would laughably deny that legendary status and perhaps infer that “infamous” was perhaps a more appropriate term. But only he could do that, and the thousands of people he has touched will certainly agree that he is indeed a beautiful man of legendary proportions. That beauty was evident in his everyday interactions with people, both at the store, on the slopes, in his music and in his personal life.
Keith had the unique ability to educate and inform his customers while quietly and subtly cultivating a new friendship or reinforcing an old one.
His knowledge of skiing was surpassed only by his love for people. And this love was recognized and reciprocated by a throng of loyal “customers,” although that word is not really accurate. Perhaps followers would be more appropriate. Actually, friends of Keith are what we all became.
He never had a bad word to say about anyone. If there was the hint of an unhappy memory it would be couched in a thinly veiled reference to that person’s less endearing qualities. Keith didn’t seem to have time for negativity. He was too busy. Too busy having a conversation or playing music or telling a funny story, or remembering some long-forgotten skiing anecdote. Or working on your boots or skis while you stood there and enjoyed the show.
I realize that some people went into The Pro to buy skis and boots. So many others went in to his store to maybe ask a question, shoot the breeze or simply be entertained. He was incredibly gracious and indefatigable in his dealings with everyone who graced those hallowed halls.
The Pro, because of Keith, became an essential type of community center, a place where friends would meet and also shoot the breeze while Keith worked on some new customer’s boots, occasionally chiming into the conversation with a humorous but appropriate comment.
Maybe some people came into his store for the products he sold, but undoubtedly they left the store being sold on Keith. Because his ethos and personality was palpable, he cared about his customers. He cultivated loyalty because he was loyal. He created friendships because he was friendly and caring. He not only remembered your boot size but also the names of your kids and other important personal information. The stuff that really mattered. He cared about people and it showed.
I came to the game a little late, meeting Keith only thirty years ago. It quickly became evident to me that I had a lot of catching up to do. Luckily Keith was happy to quickly bring me into the fold. After being with Keith only a few times it seemed like you knew him forever. He made it possible by telling some of the funniest stories about Hunter, skiing, music, life on the road as a ski professional, Woodstock or any of the myriad topics that interested him. Skiing may have been first but everything else was a close second.
Except when he talked about Giovanni. That was when you realized that skiing was second and family was first, as it should be. But of course. And once you met Giovanni it was all very clear. The love, the close relationship, the friendship and the pride for a great son. And the stories. Oh boy, Keith could tell some good stories about Giovanni. And they were all told with the unspoken love of a proud father. He obviously has a lot to be proud of.
Keith packed a lot of living into his short life. Someone might object and say that 68 years is not short. But knowing all the things Keith did and wanted to do makes it evident that he considered himself far from the finish line. But he could be sanguine and philosophical as he saw it approaching. And yet always upbeat.
When Keith got sick, the Hunter community, the skiing community felt his pain and his discomfort. The word suffering doesn’t apply here although no doubt he suffered. But he wouldn’t allow the suffering to overcome his eternal optimism and joy for life. Just a few weeks ago he told me that he was looking forward to many good years to come. And as I listened to him talk I found myself believing in him and his plans. He sold me once again. On him. I am so grateful to have that.
When I think about him, I think about the joy he had for life. The ski life, first and foremost, but also music and traveling and Anita and Florida. How Gio was taking over the shop and the fact that he was able to work so closely with his son and with Anita. Going to his store was like going to his house. Keith always liked to tell the story of how the cops dropped me and my sons over to his house in Phoenicia with lights and sirens in a raging snow storm. He got a real kick out of that. I’m sure he had many great stories about so many more of his friends and naturally brought them up in conversation. Keith had a way of making everyone seem like a close friend. It wasn’t contrived. It was real.
Keith was a personality who could easily have a line of people waiting for a short chat. Or a long one. Eventually they had to put up a velvet rope outside the boot fitting area. People wanted to talk to him, whether it was on a break with the Ugly Van Band or during a Keith and Mario gig at the mountain, or later when he was playing bass and singing with Wild Blue, he had his followers. He always had time for all of us. What a joy it was playing with him in 23a. Memories of a lifetime.
But outside of the store or the stage. the skiers knew where they could almost always find Keith. First chair on Wednesday mornings. Keith had his dedicated crew. They know who they are. And sometimes Keith was on that legendary “first chair” of the season. Even the one with seven skiers on a six pack lift. He told that one so well, never identifying the interloper who squeezed on at the last minute.
But the first chair is an appropriate metaphor for this great life and great and loving man. He was a guy who tried to put everyone first and some might say to a fault. But everyone who knows him realizes that putting other people first is what makes the great ones great. It is the ethos of love. So it is not even a question as to where that first chair is going. Keith is on that first chair and this time it is really going to all the way to the top of the mountain. We are all better off for knowing and loving him. Thanks, Keith, for everything. For your friendship and for always taking care of me and my family and the whole Hunter family as well. You were always on the top of the mountain. You belonged on the first chair.
Rest in Peace my friend
