Keith M. Honey

Keith Max Honey, 90, passed away unexpectedly January 8 surrounded by his children, six months after the death of his beloved wife Betty. He was preceded in death also by his sister Barbara and nephew Geoffrey Abby. Keith was born December 19, 1921 to Guy and Florence Honey in Brown City, Michigan. He grew up in Detroit and attended McKenzie High School with his high school sweetheart Betty Miner. They married June 19, 1943 and in 2011 celebrated their 68th anniversary. Keith was a model of strength and compassion, a loving father and husband, who carried himself with nobility, warmth and grace. Emblematic of the Greatest Generation, he enlisted in the Navy at the start of World War II. Serving as a radioman and tail gunner on a torpedo plane in the South Pacific, he survived many harrowing missions. Keith attended Michigan State University on the GI Bill, earning a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture in 1949. He served as city planner in Pontiac, Michigan (1949-1951) and Toledo, Ohio (1951-1955), becoming Director of Urban Planning in Grand Rapids, Michigan (1956-1960.) Returning to MSU in 1960 to earn an M.S. in urban planning, Keith became Planning Director of East Lansing and then professor of urban planning and landscape architecture at MSU (1965-1986). He was president of the Michigan Society of Planning Officials (1964-1973). Keith and Betty were residents of Williamston for the last 52 years of their lives and had lived there in the post-war years while Keith finished his degree.

With the heart of an explorer, Keith loved nature and the American West, fighting fires for the U.S. Forest Service in 1941. He made several backpacking trips with his friend John Read, and they took a month long canoe trip along the Yukon River. The Honeys and Reads made three trailer trips to Alaska. Keith and John built a log cabin on the Muskegon River, where the two couples spent delightful week-ends together. In his youth Keith was an exceptional athlete, pitching sandlot baseball games and playing football for MSU. He remained fit his entire life, chopping wood for hearth fires, cross country skiing, and running well into his senior years. Even at 90, he looked decades younger. His greatest pleasures were reading, watching the Detroit Tigers, landscaping his yard, and creating art work.

Keith’s beautiful spirit of serenity, dignity, elegance, intelligence, courage, devotion, empathy and delight drew people to him. He was the perfect father who leaves behind three children blessed by his grace and love: Maureen (Tom Kiefer), Michael (Pat Krueger) and Charles Honey (Andrea Myers). He is also survived by grandchildren Maxwell Honey and Emily Hamilton-Honey (Nicole Hamilton-Honey) and their mother Wendy Honey, foster children Marguerite Bryant and Barry McGuire, 43 other nieces and nephews, friends Bill Shinoda, John and Mary Read.

A memorial service will be held on Friday, June 8 at 2:00 p.m. at Gorsline Runciman Funeral Homes, 205 E. Middle St., Williamston, MI. Visitation will be from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. prior to the service. In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be made to Defenders of Wildlife, 1130 17th St. NW, Washington D.C. 20036 or to the Capital Area Humane Society, 7095 W. Grand River, Lansing, MI 48912. Personal messages may be left with Gorsline Runciman Funeral Homes, Williamston www.grwilliamston.com.