On June 10, 2009 there was a Memorial for Donald Robert Keating at the Ralph Thornton Centre on the 2nd floor in the Town Hall.
 

  Supercat. Don Keating: 1925-2009

March 3, 2009. He was 83.

Born on a farm at Silverereek, Manitoba, in 1925, Don became a United Church minister, serving several congregations. Always an innovator, he started an ecumenical “house church” ministry in Winnipeg, and wrote a series of controversial columns for the Winnipeg Tribune. Feeling pushed out of the United Church, in 1963 he moved to Chicago to join an exciting community organizing effort.

It was his reputation there, nicknamed “Supercat”, and two former collegues, Norm Thomas and Ed File, that got him the job in Riverdale in 1969, leading a team of community organizers. After many local successes by small neighbourhood groups, he oversaw the creation of the Greater Riverdale Organization (GRO). He later wrote of that experience in a book called The Power to Make it Happen.

After GRO, Don moved on. He taught at OISE, and earned a masters degree York U in environmental studies. He worked with four native bands in northern Ontario.
In 1979 Don was about to be hired as the first director of the new Scadding Court Community Centre, but while driving home one evçning his car was hit by another running a red light. He was six weeks in a comma, but recovered, learning to speak all over again. He had kept journals all his adult life, and they helped bring back his memory.
He then started a whole “second life”. He moved back into Riverdale and joined the Advisory Board at Jimmie Simpson Recreation Centre. He became their representative on the Board of the Ralph Thornton Centre, where he was soon elected President. During these years he became deeply involved in helping Japanese Canadians win redress from the federal government.

In 1989 Don moved to North Bay and for twenty years became deeply involved in church and community life there. He joined a men’s barbershop chorus. He started local branches of Veterans Against Nuclear Arms, and of the Council of Canadians. He earned a vast crowd of admiring, loving friends. In 2001 he published his autobiography, Supercat.

This January he had a fall that broke his neck. Neurosurgeons in Ottawa thought that he would pull through.. .again. But it was not to be. Infections and complications made recovery impossible. On March 3, 2009, his daughters informed his friends that their dad had “slipped away into the arms of the creator”, surrounded by the loving presence of all his kids.    

Memorial Document