Keith Joseph Stippich

Keith Joseph Stippich, 81, our beloved father, grandfather, brother, uncle, cousin, and friend passed away peacefully at his cherished home. Keith was born on March 15th, 1940, to Carl and Lorraine Stippich. He grew up with his big sister Carol and younger brother Gary in Milwaukee. Keith, in a word, was strong-willed.
As a young man, it was that strength of will that allowed him to excel at sports and, most of all, boat racing. The Stippich family was a fixture on the boat racing circuit. Carl crafted and built boats, Carol, Keith and Gary all raced and won several titles at nationals in various classes.  Keith made a community of cherished friends through racing that would remain so vitally important to him until the time of his death. It was while crisscrossing the country for racing competitions, he fell in love with travel and exploring new places.
His strength of will helped him to graduate from Marquette University’s challenging mechanical engineering program. In his last year at Marquette University, he was able to work on the first computers brought into the program, which would instill a love of forward-thinking and technology that he possessed the rest of his life. A family trip taken as a kid inspired him to head West, first to Colorado and then Utah. In Utah he would put down roots and continue to push forward the professional boundaries of what he could accomplish in the fields of Mechanical Engineering and HVAC.
As a father, he was kind, generous, adventurous, always up for fun and a good time. We will cherish our memories of skiing, playing sports, traveling, watching sports, and all of the fun activities we were blessed to share with him. He was so generous in opening his house for pool parties, volleyball weekends, family gatherings, “Camp Keith Grandkid Summer Camp,” and so many other events where he loved socializing and having a good time. We will miss seeing him take to the dance floor.
In December of 2019, we would see Keith’s strength of will in full force when he had an incident in which most of his back, lower legs, heels, and feet were severely burned. He would spend close to a month up at the University Hospital Burn Unit and another month in a rehabilitation facility. Once back home, his resolve to do what was necessary to heal and recover as much strength as possible was the epitome of who he was.
Keith was preceded in death by his father Carl, mother Lorraine, big sister Carol, and son Tad. He is survived by his brother Gary (Mary), sons Clark (Angie), Brett (Melissa), and Josh (Ivonna), and his grandchildren Irie, Ashlynn, Isaac, Gigi, Sadie, Lola, and Olive.
We will be honoring Keith’s life in late May details pending.