Several years ago, Keith D. Speaks embarked on an art project involving as many unused keys as he could get his hands on.
After imploring his many friends on social media to give him any old, unwanted keys of any year or make, he got to work, first hanging strings of them off a tree as a mobile, then affixing them to a shed in a wave pattern. He often enlisted his younger grandsons’ help in sorting and counting them, and at the start of the month asked his many friends to send him keys with artwork already on them as long as they didn’t have Chicago Cubs logos or political work because he “has standards, after all,” he wrote on Nov. 3.
That he’d just finished one of the projects before he died felt especially sad, friend Kathy DeGuilio-Fox said. Speaks, 72 of Highland, died suddenly on Nov. 15.
Speaks, the former executive director for Hammond’s Neighborhoods Inc. from 1998 to its demise in 2017, couldn’t be anyone but “Dad” in everything he did, his children, Kassia White and David Speaks, said Wednesday. He was a straight shooter, and he lived his life like he believed his own father, Keith Doman Speaks, would’ve wanted.
He also bled purple and white, the colors of his beloved alma mater, Hammond High. After working in Pasadena for a number of years, Speaks’s job transferred him to Texas, and his wife was the one who brought the family “home” to the region.
“He wasn’t shy about letting you know how he felt about (Texas),” White said. “But we could’ve gone back to California or gone to Miami, where we had a business, but Mom suggested Hammond because it was known to him, so here we are, and it made him extremely proud to have his kids graduate from the school he went to.”
“And once I went to Purdue, he became a huge Purdue fan,” David Speaks added.
White believes the success Neighborhoods Inc. enjoyed for so long was directly because of Speaks’s “fiduciary genius.” He had a way of knowing what programs to eliminate and which would propel the organization’s mission until the very end, she said.
“We expanded from three areas in Hammond to all of Hammond, East Chicago, Calumet City and Burnham (Illinois), and Highland, so that was thousands of homes,” White said. “He was able to keep track of the improvements and prove the impact he made.”
“Being able to connect with so many other communities, that was who he was,” David Speaks said. “He saw the best in people always and was always there to give advice whether you wanted it or not.”
Speaks’s brother, Kevin Speaks, called his brother a “hero” who wasn’t always popular, but always “walked the talk.”
“Keith was his own man, and he fought to death for his family and friends,” Kevin Speaks said. “He’s the epitome of the protector of the good things he did in his life.”
DeGuilio-Fox, who was the former redevelopment director for the town of Highland, never worked with Speaks and Neighborhoods Inc. but knew him from high school. She remembers him as “extremely intelligent” and creative in his own way.
“He never forgot a face or name,” she said. “One of the kindest men who was so dedicated to his family, gone way before his time.”
Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush, who served as Calumet City’s clerk from 1985 to 2003 and its mayor from 2003 to 2021, remembered participating in “Best House on the Block” and the Dog Walk with the city of Hammond, “which brought neighbors together celebrating things we have in common and promoting pride in our neighborhoods,” she said in a private message.
“I enjoyed our conversations on ideas to promote our City and engage our residents. I am sad to learn of his untimely passing,” she said. “He will be missed.”
Keith D. Speaks is survived by his wife, Virginia, of Highland; son David (Amy); daughter Kassia White (Richard); grandsons Adam Mehidi, and Julian and Dominic White; brother Kevin Speaks (Angela Conner), niece Ariane Taylor-Bassett and many cousins and friends. A viewing will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. December 5 at LaHayne Funeral Home, 6955 Southeastern Ave., Hammond, with cremation to follow.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
