Founder of the Shelburne Bike Club lived by a motto: "Go fast, take chances"
After struggling with aggressive pneumonia and complications from lifelong diabetes, William McHenry Keyser died peacefully on December 15 with his wife, Virginia, by his side near their new home in Lake Wales, Fla. Mac was born on August 2, 1952, in New Bedford, Mass., near Marion, a treasured place where he spent time every summer with his family. The son of R. Brent Keyser and Helen Angier Keyser, Mac spent his youngest years in his father’s native Baltimore. He attended the Gilman School and the Harvey School and later graduated from Middlesex School, where he was known as a hardworking student and a steady competitor in sports, including soccer, ice hockey and lacrosse. He graduated from New England College in New Hampshire, majoring in business. While attending NEC, his love of music and skiing led to his moonlighting as a disc jockey at the local radio station and working on the ski patrol at nearby Pat’s Peak Mountain. Upon graduating, he moved to Vermont, where he resided for more than 40 years. At an early age, he contracted juvenile diabetes, to which he responded with discipline and fortitude for the rest of his life. He did not allow this disease to slow him down and responded by living his life by his famous motto: “Go fast, take chances.” During summers in Marion, he became an accomplished sailboat racer at the Beverly Yacht Club with a natural hand on the helm and a knack for the preparation and maintenance of his Tempest class boat. Mac loved to tinker, take things apart and make them whole again, usually while helping a friend in need. He seemed to have every tool. If something needed to be fixed, Mac knew how. He was able to repair his favorite Porsche and his many Saabs, as well as help many friends with their vehicles. He was best known for his ability to work on bikes. Whether you called him “Uncle Mac,”“Mac-a-tack,”“Mackie” or “the Macker,” you knew a bike dropped off for a simple tune-up would be returned spanking clean and perhaps with one or more parts completely rebuilt. The Shelburne Bike Club, established by Mac in the 1980s, continues to this day as the Wednesday Night Riders. For many years, his house was the starting and finishing point for these after-work evening rides, and as friends brought friends, they too became part of…
Founder of the Shelburne Bike Club lived by a motto: "Go fast, take chances"
After struggling with aggressive pneumonia and complications from lifelong diabetes, William McHenry Keyser died peacefully on December 15 with his wife, Virginia, by his side near their new home in Lake Wales, Fla. Mac was born on August 2, 1952, in New Bedford, Mass., near Marion, a treasured place where he spent time every summer with his family. The son of R. Brent Keyser and Helen Angier Keyser, Mac spent his youngest years in his father’s native Baltimore. He attended the Gilman School and the Harvey School and later graduated from Middlesex School, where he was known as a hardworking student and a steady competitor in sports, including soccer, ice hockey and lacrosse. He graduated from New England College in New Hampshire, majoring in business. While attending NEC, his love of music and skiing led to his moonlighting as a disc jockey at the local radio station and working on the ski patrol at nearby Pat’s Peak Mountain. Upon graduating, he moved to Vermont, where he resided for more than 40 years. At an early age, he contracted juvenile diabetes, to which he responded with discipline and fortitude for the rest of his life. He did not allow this disease to slow him down and responded by living his life by his famous motto: “Go fast, take chances.” During summers in Marion, he became an accomplished sailboat racer at the Beverly Yacht Club with a natural hand on the helm and a knack for the preparation and maintenance of his Tempest class boat. Mac loved to tinker, take things apart and make them whole again, usually while helping a friend in need. He seemed to have every tool. If something needed to be fixed, Mac knew how. He was able to repair his favorite Porsche and his many Saabs, as well as help many friends with their vehicles. He was best known for his ability to work on bikes. Whether you called him “Uncle Mac,”“Mac-a-tack,”“Mackie” or “the Macker,” you knew a bike dropped off for a simple tune-up would be returned spanking clean and perhaps with one or more parts completely rebuilt. The Shelburne Bike Club, established by Mac in the 1980s, continues to this day as the Wednesday Night Riders. For many years, his house was the starting and finishing point for these after-work evening rides, and as friends brought friends, they too became part of…