Those who knew Keith Charles Alward knew of his intelligence, his love for working with his hands and his willingness to help others.
Keith Alward attended Texas Wesleyan Law School in its final year before it became the Texas A&M School of Law. Heather Wright, Keith Alward’s fiancee, said before the transition, Keith Alward looked forward to being an Aggie and having the community, support and network it entailed.
“I am so very, very happy he was able to have his law school experience,” Heather Wright said. “Though it was hard, and he was so very sick with cancer through most of it, he absolutely loved his study group, being part of the school community and meeting so many smart, interesting people. It makes my heart a little less broken knowing this was part of his life and that it meant so much to him and gave him joy.”
Heather Wright said Keith Alward had an interest in everything ranging from guns, reading and Neapolitan Mastiffs to Nippon Kempo — a Japanese martial art — and computers.
“To say Keith knew a bit about everything is truly an understatement,” Wright said. “He was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known, and because of him I have a huge skillset now that I did not have before.”
Nathan Butler, a friend of Keith Alward’s from high school and a college roommate, said Keith Alward was kind and shy. He said one of his favorite memories of Keith Alward was when they attended Tarleton State for undergrad and would frequent a restaurant and bar in Stephenville.
“Keith was so shy that if we were gonna go up there and get a table and all sit together at a table, he would go,” Butler said. “He didn’t hardly drink at all and I can’t remember if he even did at all back then, but he’d just go up there and hang out with us, but if we were gonna go sit at the bar and have random people sitting around us, he didn’t want to go. I always thought that was so funny about him.”
Mark Maples, a friend of Keith Alward and a member of his law school study group, said Keith Alward was an incredibly knowledgeable guy who was also one of the friendliest people on the Texas A&M Law School campus.
“This is a highly competitive environment because of the curve … but he knew so many people and so many people loved him, and you’d walk down the hall and I was always amazed. I would be like, ‘How do you even know him?’” Mark Maples said. “People would come up and say, ‘Hey, how’s it going Keith?’ and he’d talk to them for a minute and I’m like, ‘I hang out with Keith all the time, I don’t even know where he met that person.’”
Heather Wright said some of her favorite memories of Keith Alward are his boyish smile, the time the couple used old lunch trays to slide down a snowy hill, and the night he proposed to her when they went wandering around Tarleton’s campus looking for the lucky triangle of three pennies.
“He couldn’t remember where it was at specifically though, so we wandered around the campus for an hour, looking, reminiscing and talking before I finally asked him what exactly it was we were looking for,” Heather Wright said. “It was pretty funny because I couldn’t remember either, so we spent another 30 minutes looking before we found it and he proposed. We were chuckling about that after, but before he was all wound up and nervous, it was cute.”
Heather Wright said the most important thing Keith Alward taught her was to be confident in herself.
“In our 18 years together, I knew what it meant to be truly loved, to be the center of someone’s universe, and to enjoy the little things in your days that make life so beautiful,” Heather Wright said. “I am a more kind, yet less naive person because of Keith.”