David L. Keighley of Mattapoisett passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his loving family on Wednesday, June 23, 2021 as a result of complications that developed following a double lung transplant in October 2019.
Born in 1954 in New Bedford and raised on Spring Street in Fairhaven a short block away from St. Joseph Church and School, David was the fifth of six children born to the late Vincent J. Keighley and Lillian A. Keighley.
Following his 1972 graduation from Holy Family High School, David worked at various outdoor occupations including working at A.D. Makepeace cranberries with his brother Kevin and working in a painting business with his brother Mark. Later he returned to school and earned his B.A. from UMass Dartmouth in 1990, graduating as the top student in his Political Science class. He enrolled in the Southern New England School of Law (now UMass School of Law) in 1992 and received his law degree in 1996.
In his role as an attorney, David specialized in appellate work. Initially that was at the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office. Later, in his own practice he worked through the MA Committee for Public Counsel Services until his retirement in 2018 following his diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
David was a well-read individual. Besides law he was chiefly interested in history and political biographies such as Shelby Foote’s massive three volume set on the American civil war and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s biography of President Lyndon Johnson. As for fiction, Charles Dickens and Mark Twain were his favorites.
In his twenties he took up running and later he became an avid cyclist and participant in yoga and Pilates classes. David was a longtime friend of both Bill W. and Lois W.
He is survived by his former wife Doris Guerette of Mattapoisett; his brothers, Kevin Keighley of Acushnet and Mark Keighley and his wife Nancy Gentile of Mattapoisett; his sisters, Kathleen Keighley of Wichita Falls, TX, Carole Andre of Raleigh, NC and Rosemary Keighley of Hull, MA., nephews Ryan Keighley and his wife Brigid of S. Burlington, Vt and William Andre and his wife Alexa of Clayton, NC; niece Martha Andre of Selma, NC; great nieces and nephews Coleen, Connor, Michael and Lola. In addition to his parents, he was pre-deceased by his brother-in-law Douglas Andre.
Thank you from his family to Community Nurse & Home Care and his friends who supported him through his illness and helped ease his transition to the afterlife.
He will be cremated and his cremains interred with his parents at Riverside Cemetery in Fairhaven. Relatives and friends are invited to a graveside service at Riverside Cemetery on Friday July 2, 2021 at 10 AM. Donations in David’s memory may be made to Community Nurse and Home Care, 62 Center Street, Fairhaven, MA 02719. Arrangements are by the Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home for Funerals, 50 County Rd., Mattapoisett. For online condolence book, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com.
