By Town Crier Report

Ralph E. Keirstead, 77, longtime Los Altos resident, died Nov. 3 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Yonkers, N.Y. The cause of death was respiratory failure after a short bout with pneumonia.

Mr. Keirstead was born in Waterville, Maine, and raised in Wethersfield, Conn. He received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Bowdoin College in 1948 and a master’s degree in mathematics from Johns Hopkins University in 1950.

Mr. Keirstead served in the U.S. Army at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where he worked on some of the earliest computers. After discharge, his experience led him to California and employment with the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, followed by the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park.

At SRI, he met and subsequently married Mary M. Humphrey and moved to Sunnyvale, where their two children were born.

In 1964 Mr. Keirstead accepted an overseas position with Control Data Corporation that took the family to Germany and Switzerland for three years.

When they returned to the United States in late 1966, the Keirsteads moved to Los Altos and Mr. Keirstead resumed his job with SRI, where he remained until his retirement in 1988.

During his retirement years, Mr. Keirstead was active in volunteer activities with Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic in Palo Alto. He served on the board of directors from 1997 to 2000. In 2001, RFB&D honored him with a 1,000-hour milestone award for the hours he recorded technical books. He also volunteered at the senior center in Los Altos and as a math tutor at Los Altos High School.

Mr. Keirstead is survived by two sons, Thomas of Bloomington, Ind., and William of New York City, and three grandchildren, Nicholas, Zachary and Robert, all of New York City.

A memorial service is scheduled 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 751 Waverly St., Palo Alto. The family asks that donations be made in Mr. Keirstead’s memory to Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, 488 W. Charleston Road, Palo Alto 94306.