Keith Wendell Nelson departed this planet for his next adventure on Tuesday, February 5th 2019. Keith began his time on earth in Yuma, Arizona, on March 4th 1983 as the most welcome child of Edward Eugene Nelson and Leslie Gail (Jackson) Nelson. Grandparents Lyle and Mary Nelson and Everett Blake and Norma McDonald were very involved in Keith’s life as were step parents Stacy Nelson and Keith McDonald and siblings Madolyn, Blake, Tyler and aunts Linda and Patty, uncle Bill, and many cousins.
Keith was the proud parent of Savanna Nelson. Keith played local sports such as swimming, soccer for Dr Morrison’s Maulers, enjoyed all things related to Butter Cup sand dunes, Colorado River, Mission Beach, concerts, circus, travel and helping with his sister’s summer theatre. The College Park Crew in Yuma and in Brawley on the Eastside– Keith had great adventures with JT, John, Aaron, Chad and Colby.
Keith was a skate boarder since the age of 2 and skated the entire city of Yuma, AZ throughout his childhood and attended the first 2 Summer X Games at Mission Beach, CA, where he was almost hit in the head when Tony Hawk threw a skateboard into the bleachers; Keith also enjoyed staying in the same motel that the Brazilian skateboarders were housed in and got the pro athletes to teach him tricks that impacted Keith throughout his lifetime as he made his own skate videos and showed off his skate board bruises with much pride. During the last 6 years of Keith’s life he spent his time between Yuma, AZ; and Portland, OR; and proudly claimed that he walked and skated every street in each city on the hottest days in Yuma and the coldest and rainiest days in Portland and that nothing stood in his way of getting on his board and getting out in the fresh air and having an adventure. Keith possessed a voracious hunger for knowledge of chemistry, biology, physics, religion, culture, and politics and loved to discuss how each sphere intersected with and influenced the others with anyone who would listen and even those who didn’t care to listen if Keith thought that he could make the world a better place by imparting his knowledge.
It’s very possible that Keith attended every church in Yuma and in Portland at least once; and he attended churches in languages that he didn’t speak in his efforts to learn as much as he could about world religions; and Keith was baptized in Yuma in early 2019. Foodie, in any dictionary, should include a caption about Keith as he was always creating odd combinations of food or partaking of Veganism, Vegetarianism, or other –isms where food was involved. He mostly loved mixing Mexican and Asian foods together into what he called an Explosion of Tastebud Delights and Tongue Ticklers.
Keith worked and lived in Alaska and Portland during the last years of his life and reported that the air was so fresh in Alaska, and the mountains so beautiful in Portland, and that only the stars at night in Yuma could feel more like home. Those stars called Keith home to Yuma in 2018 to say goodbye to his grandfather, Lyle Nelson, and then Keith said goodbye to all of us February 5th 2019. Rest in Peace, Keith, and know that you remind all of us how precious life is and how important it is to love each other and ourselves and to drink life like a fountain running down a mountain.
Please remember Keith by donations to Crossroads Mission and by smiling at skateboarders.
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