Alexander M. “Sandy” Keith, former lawyer, lieutenant governor and Minnesota Supreme Court justice, has died.
He was 93.
Family friend Anne Brataas, who said she knew Keith through her mother, the late State Sen. Nancy Brataas, said he died early Saturday in his sleep at his Rochester, Minn., home.
“Chief Justice Keith was a remarkably humane and engaged justice — a trait I attribute to his professional lawyering roots in family law in Rochester,” Brataas said Sunday. “He never forgot that the family is the most powerful unit of a just and generative society. Through his actions he has inspired so many people — including me.”
She said his “concern for all Minnesota children having the chance for a stable and prosperous future” impacted her and was an important motivation to her forming Minnesota Children’s Press, a nonprofit that helps rural children master digital skills.
According to biography information on the Minnesota courts website, Keith was born in 1928 in Rochester. In 1950, he graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he studied political science. While there, he was a star football player and wrestling champ. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
In 1953, he graduated from Yale Law School. He served as a U.S. Marine during the Korean War from 1953 to 1955.
Keith worked in the legal department at Mayo Clinic in Rochester from 1955 to1960, when he began private legal practice. He was elected to the Minnesota Senate in 1959 as a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and was a delegate to the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.
In 1959, he received the Rochester Junior Chamber of Commerce award as Outstanding Man.
He served as lieutenant governor under Gov. Karl Rølvaag from 1963 until 1967, before returning to private practice in Rochester.
In 1989, Gov. Rudy Perpich appointed Keith to the Minnesota Supreme Court. He served as chief justice from 1990 to 1998.
He is believed to be the first person to serve in all three branches of Minnesota state government.
He married his wife, Marion, in 1955, and they had two sons, Ian and Douglas.
Keith and his family, “his powerhouse intellect wife Marion, his son Ian, a teacher in the St. Paul schools, and physician son Douglas” have made improving lives a priority in their own lives, Brataas said.
“Sandy and Marion’s remarkable lifelong friendship with my mother transcended politics — he as a DFL office holder, she as IR. It centered on values and respect for lively argument and debate as a path to growth, insight and civic action. Sandy and Marion were important witnesses and advocates for the commitment they shared with my mother to mentoring colleagues and youth — again, irrespective of party. Though Sandy and my mother have long been out of public life, their service has not diminished: I am frequently greeted by friends of theirs who long for the days when principles guided civic debate and action, not personality or party. Sandy truly was the embodiment of that shining value of principled debate and action in seeking to build a Commons. May it return!”