Obituary: Keith Taylor was Memorial's athletic director, member of provincial sports Hall of Fame

Funeral services will be held in St. John’s today for former Memorial University athletics director Keith Taylor, who died over the weekend in his 80th year after a lengthy battle with cancer.
Taylor, who was inducted into Newfoundland and Labrador Sports Hall of Fame in 1992, was involved in a myriad of sports, but at the collegiate level, was best known as the long-time coach of MUN’s men’s volleyball and cross-country teams.
He was named the 1984 men’s volleyball coach of the year by the Atlantic Universities Athletic Association, the predecessor to the AUS. The previous year, Taylor had been named the Newfoundland and Labrador Volleyball Association’s top coach. He was president of the NLVA and was named an honorary life member of that body.
Besides being coach for cross-country at Memorial, Taylor was chair for that sport with the Amateur Athletics Union (now Athletics Canada).
Outside of the university, Taylor was instrumental in establishing orienteering in the province, and served as an instructor and on executives for cross-country skiing and canoeing.
Left to mourn are his wife of 55 years, Barbara, his daughter Susan Ploughman (Bruce) and son Colin (Kim) and grandchildren Jeremy and Claire Ploughman and Noah and Jake Taylor.
Funeral service is 2 p.m. today at St. James United Church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Keith Taylor Memorial Award  at Memorial University through the Office of Development, PO Box 4200 STN C, St. John’s, NL, A1C 5S7, or online at www.mun.ca/alumni/give.