Keith A. Tandy

Keith A. Tandy, age 70, of Moorhead, MN, died Thursday, July 26, 2007, at home under the care of Hospice of the Red River Valley.Keith Alan Tandy was born on August 30, 1936, in Washington, Iowa, to Mel and Irma Tandy. He grew up in Reinbeck, IA, and graduated from Morningside College in 1958, where he also met his wife, Linde Lou Wohlenberg. The couple moved to New York where he earned a MA in English at Columbia University, and then to California where he earned his Ph.D. at UC-Berkeley. While there, the couple also added son John and daughter Ann to their family. In 1976 the family moved to Moorhead where Keith taught English at Moorhead State University for nearly three decades. He took great joy in his students' growth and achievements, both intellectual and personal. Former students frequently commented on the positive difference he made in their lives. He passed his love of language and books on to his children; both John and Ann grew up to be voracious and discriminating readers. He was also a skilled teller of stories himself, and enjoyed few things more than exchanging wild stories with friends over drinks and good food. In the summers he focused on gardening and bird feeding. He grew his own sweet corn for years, and wouldn't pick it until the water was boiling. In the last several years, he became a baker of excellent rhubarb pies. Living north of Moorhead along the river, he attracted orioles and indigo buntings to his feeders, establishing stable colonies of the generally transitory birds and waging continual warfare against the local squirrel population in their defense. His last few years were made joyful by the continued presence of his wife, and by the addition to his family of John's wife Tess and her son Curtis, and Ann's husband Matt Treiber and their children Blythe and Dashiell. In addition to them, he is survived by his three brothers, Don, Dick and Karl Tandy, sister-in-law, Kristi and numerous other family and friends who will miss him greatly. Memorials are preferred to First Congregational United Church of Christ, Moorhead or River Keepers.