|
Keith and his dog guide Everest in the historic APH building
in Louisville, Ky., where he works as a computer programmer.
Keith Creasy strolls down from his third floor office in the
huge building where he works in Louisville, Kentucky. Trim,
with a thick shock of salt and pepper hair that until recently
hung down his back in a long braid and was offset by a beard
and mustache, the biggest difference in his appearance from
his high school days in McKenzie is the absence of his
glasses, though he occasionally dons a becoming pair of
shades.
The oldest part of the early 1800's building in which he works
is as unique as the work that goes on in the building that
covers most of a city block. The architecture alone is worth a
visit to The American Printing House for the Blind, where
Keith is a computer programmer. The story of how he wound up
in Louisville rings of providence.
Keith is almost a McKenzie native, though Peoria, Illinois,
claims that honor, owing to his fathers' search for employment
after leaving the Air Force.
"They were there just long enough for me to be born," Keith
jokes. His parents, Harvey and Peggy Creasy, moved back to
McKenzie about a year after they'd left it. Later, they had
two more sons, Kenneth, who now lives in South Fulton, and
Mike, in McKenzie. The family lived on the farm of Keith's
"Granny and T-Daddy", Gertie Mae and James T. Jones, then
moved to town when Keith started first grade at McKenzie.
As time moved on, Keith's interest was in music, though his
full participation was thwarted for a time by complications
from an eye disorder he'd had since birth, although, he notes,
glasses corrected his vision "for the most part."
"Sometimes I'd get frustrated when kids would look up and see
an airplane," he illustrated. "I could hear it but I couldn't
see it. But I could see good enough that it didn't matter as a
whole."
In 1970, he missed several months of his eighth grade year due
to a detached retina in his left eye and, after surgery, when
he returned to school his freshman year, was forced to sit out
the marching band season. The interlude had its pros and cons.
"I was technically still a member of the marching band," he
grins, "and several football players were also in the band but
couldn't participate in marching season, so during class I was
hanging out with the football players. It was sort of
interesting sitting around goofing off with them."
By the time he was a sophomore, Keith says, "I was in the
swing of things."
So talented was he on the trombone that he played in the
Bethel College band as well as the high school band. His
friend, James Farmer, played saxophone in both local bands and
they both played in the Kentucky Lake Community Band, as well.
After high school, Keith attended Austin Peay in Clarksville
where he majored in voice and minored in trombone and piano.
He and his first wife of 22 years, Barbara, then moved to
Nashville where he was church music director for two years
before choosing to attend Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary in Louisville. There, he planned to study church
music.
Their first son, Jonathan, born in 1982, was three months old
when the family made the northward journey in June. By then,
following a gradual deterioration due to the detached retina
and glaucoma, Keith says he had no useful vision in his left
eye but, thanks to his good right eye, was still able to
drive.
He entered the seminary in September while working nights at
"Radio Page", an
electronic paging and radio telephone service.
"Remember, cell phones weren't around yet, or were at least
very new and expensive," Keith says, adding focus to his
story.
At work one night in October, Keith recalls, "I noticed a dark
shadow that would pass over the corner of my field of vision."
He recognized immediately the symptom of another detached
retina. Over the next few weeks, he made two trips back to
Nashville to see his ophthalmologist, as well as another
ophthalmologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
"My doctor stated that he could find nothing but good retina
and I began to think that I was wrong after all," says Keith.
"I soon found out that the doctor was the one who was
mistaken."
On October 21, after working all night, Keith found his vision
was much worse.
Incredibly, he says, "That morning my vision was so blurred
that I drove home in the dim early-morning light by following
the taillights of the cars in front of me. I knew the route
well enough to find my turns."
That afternoon, Barbara drove him to the Lions Eye Clinic in
Louisville where he was given a thorough retinal exam. The
ophthalmologist found what he thought was a "small" tear and
admitted Keith into the hospital for surgery that very
evening.
"The tear turned out to be very large," Keith continues.
"While I did regain some vision for a short time after the
surgery, it didn't last. Scar tissue closed up the pupil in
that eye and, after several attempts to clear the scar tissue,
the doctor finally gave up and I was told that nothing more
could be done."
Keith acknowledges he experienced periods of despondency
regarding his blindness, but, overall, recalls he was too busy
to be hindered for long. As soon as possible, he entered a
rehabilitation facility in Louisville where he learned braille
and cane travel. In order to continue his studies in seminary,
he purchased a talking Apple IIe computer.
Keith's ordeal began, ironically, the same year Time magazine
chose the computer as its "Machine of the Year", a departure
from its annual tradition of naming a "Man of the Year".
According to www.computerhistory.org, Publisher John A. Meyers
had noted at the time, "Several human candidates
might have represented 1982, but none symbolized the past year
more richly, or will be viewed by history as more significant,
than a machine: the computer."
A Time magazine writer had commented, "Computers were once
regarded as distant, ominous abstractions, like Big Brother.
In 1982, they truly became personalized, brought down to
scale, so that people could hold, prod and play with them."
Even so, the lead writer on the Time project had relied upon a
typewriter with which to complete his work, illustrating the
relative newness of computers and word processors even among
the most illustrious in the writing industry.
Thus was the situation into which Keith was propelled: a
sturdy background in music coupled with a newfound proclivity
for computers in a day when relatively few people were
computer literate.
"Some time later I realized music and computer programming
seem to go together," shares Keith, who notes, "IBM at one
time wanted someone with a music degree over computer
programming. People with knack for music also have a talent
for programming."
Additionally, he had lost his sight in a city that since the
early 1800s was attuned to a sightless population. It didn't
take long before he attracted the attention of personnel at
The American Printing House for the Blind.
"I finished another two terms in seminary before I took a job
teaching other people who were blind or with low vision how to
use the computer," he says, regarding his entry level position
with APH. "I had a young family... I thought about just moving
back to McKenzie, but we had a super group here so I stuck it
out. I've been here now for 23 years and I've enjoyed it."
His interest in computers continued to the point that, Keith
laughs, "music became a hobby," though he continued to be
involved in church music off and on over the years.
Mostly self-taught, he also took a few college programming
classes. His interest paid off when he became a computer
programmer at APH. As such, he has had a hand in some
remarkable advances for the blind and those with low vision.
"I enjoy just about everything I do; what I'm working on now
is very interesting," says Keith, pulling from his backpack
his favorite tool and toy, a device called the "Book Port".
The electronic, handheld or clip-on device looks much like a
remote control and comes with earbuds. Its value is in its
flexibility: it not only plays music and the Daisy digital
talking books that are the mainstay of low vision/blind book
lovers, it also reads, with synthetic speech, computer text,
Web content, and other text files, and also works as a
recorder. The software and USB cable that come with the unit
allow users to transfer data from a computer to the Book Port
for use anytime.
Data on the Book Port is navigable by letter, word, sentence,
paragraph, page, or section item and users can control pitch,
speed, and volume of speech with a choice of synthetic speech
voices. It even has a sleep timer.
"I love this, that's why I keep it in my backpack," Keith
says. The device runs near $400, but, he continues, "I sure
would not want to be without it. I use it for pleasure reading
and things I need for my work, too. I don't use it to listen
to music too much, though, mostly because I don't have time."
Keith is also remarkably well traveled, as is Everest, his
six-year-old,
yellow Labrador retriever dog guide. Keith just returned from
London and Montreal where he attended a meeting of the DAISY
(Digital Accessible Information System) consortium, an
international organization founded to "lead the worldwide
transition from analog to digital talking books."
Among other places to which Keith has traveled are Amsterdam
in the Netherlands; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Stockholm, Sweden
as well as various places around the United States.
Asked to name his favorite among his travels, he confesses,
"McKenzie's my favorite.
"I do like this part of the country," he says. "Florida's fun,
being warm most of the time, but I have to say Tennessee and
Kentucky are awfully nice places to live."
Not too bad, either, is Indiana, about five miles from
Louisville, where Keith lives with wife Cindy, with whom he
was married last year.
"We first made contact through the Internet—she's from
Scottsboro, Indiana—then we got together and the rest, as they
say, is history," Keith grins, going on to tell how they had
both completed profiles at match.com.
"I wrote her and told her she sounded wonderful and she wrote
back and said, 'I am wonderful!" he laughs.
Cindy is an obstetrics nurse at University Hospital in
Louisville who brought two children—Marshall, 18, and Tashana,
16—into the marriage, along with Keith's four: Jonathan, 23;
Andrew, 21; Emma Elizabeth, who graduates from high school
this month; and 12 year-old Benjamin, who is in the sixth
grade.
With only Jonathan married so far, Keith notes he
doesn't have any grandchildren yet, but figures, "When we do
they'll start coming along fast and furious."
Keith tells how he and Cindy enjoy riding their tandem bike on
Saturdays, often 30 to 50 miles, now that spring is here. And
they are looking forward to visiting McKenzie on Memorial Day
weekend, when Keith's Class of 1975 will be celebrating its
30th reunion.
"I enjoy getting back to visit," says Keith. "There are still
a few people in McKenzie who recognize me when they see me,
but there are some people I haven't seen in ages and ages."
But, he muses, "I don't feel like I'm that much different than
30 years ago; I'm still raising children, still pretty
reasonably healthy; I'm still chugging along and loving it. I
have a great family, great children, and a job I enjoy
doing—what more can you ask for?"
|
2005 Feature Archives: |
|
|
|
|
|
2004
Feature
Archives: |
|
|
|
. |
|
2003
Feature
Archives: |
|
|
|
. |
|
2002
Feature
Archives: |
|
|
|
. |
|
2001
Feature
Archives: |
|
|
|
