Woodville’s ‘Renaissance man’ remembered for his ingenuity, humour

WOODVILLE, N.S. — The Annapolis Valley community of Woodville has lost a well-known and well-loved resident who is being remembered as a true “Renaissance man.”

Keith Boates passed away on Jan. 24 at the age of 93. The founder of Boates Farm is widely regarded as the first farmer in Nova Scotia to establish a U-pick operation, marketing apples directly to consumers.

In a January 2023 interview, Boates said he basically retired after transitioning ownership of the farm to his son Brian about six years ago.

Boates said he had been keeping busy. Well-known for his mechanical ingenuity, Boates kept up to date with new technologies. He installed solar panels to generate electricity for his house and made it a project to get his children and their families outfitted with solar panels too.

He said he was getting close to net-zero energy use, and he hoped to have enough photovoltaic capacity to also power his electric car, the first new car he ever bought. He was 91 at the time.

Boates kept one of the earliest cars he ever purchased, a 1922 Stanley Steamer. The 102-year-old car had only one previous owner. Boates said he bought it when he was 17 or 18.

“I’ve had a lot of interesting cars over the years,” Boates said in 2023.

He had steam, gas, diesel, and electric cars, some of the most notable including a Packard, a British sports car, and a Volkswagen van dating from the early 1980s.

Brian said he has been feeling a lot of support since his father’s passing. A lot of people who knew his dad have reached out, some of which the family hasn’t heard from in years, sharing stories and reminiscing.

“He did a lot of different things and tried a lot of things entrepreneurially, to market apples or to grow apples, so he came in contact with a lot of different people,” Brian said.

He and his father farmed together for more than 30 years, and in many ways were “the classic father-son farming operation.” Brian has many good memories of those shared experiences.

He said his father always promoted buying local and the direct marketing of apples. He wanted to provide consumers with quality apples that were grown in a responsible manner, without a lot of chemicals.

Brian said his dad was very proud that the community always hosted the annual Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival chicken barbecue in the farm’s orchard.

Fondly remembered

Neighbour Deborah Parrott once described Boates as “a true Renaissance man” who could make or repair anything.

Boates had a bachelor of commerce degree from Dalhousie University. Parrot said Boates had to take one science class and opted for physics. His wife, Charlotte, told her that Boates was so good at it that his professors tried to convince him to change career paths.

David Killam of Woodville said his father was good friends with Boates, and that’s how he came to know Keith. He said he met Boates for the first time in the early 1960s, soon after Keith, Charlotte, and family moved to the community.

“Keith was just kind of a genius, there was nothing that seemed to stump him,” Killam said.

He said Boates was a mechanic, machinist, apple grower, repaired cars and did body work. Killam said nothing seemed to scare Boates, whether it was a huge payloader or tiny piece of electronics. He’d be comfortable repairing or rebuilding it.

Killam said perhaps his fondest memory of Boates involved the Stanley Steamer, which he got to ride in back in 1962 and again in 2017 after Boates put a new boiler in the car.

Killam said Boates used to work as an insurance adjuster. Over the years, Boates bought several vehicles that were quite badly smashed that he would rebuild and put back on the road.

‘Tremendous’ sense of humour

Jane Bustin said her parents were the late Fred and Mary Walsh, of Rockland. The Walsh and Boates families have been close friends for more than 70 years. Bustin said that continues to this day with Charlotte.

Bustin said that aside from being a brilliant inventor and a Renaissance man, Boates “had a tremendous sense of humour.” She said his sense of humour was somewhat dry but was always there.

She said her father was well-known and visited everybody, and Boates made him a series of humourous business cards over the years to hand out.

Waldo Walsh said his father, Fred, probably met Boates around the time Fred bought his farm in Rockland in the early 1950s. The two families have been very close since.

Walsh said the thing he’ll probably remember most about Boates is his ingenuity. He said Boates may have held a commerce degree, but he probably should have been an engineer.

“He was just an eccentric, interesting individual. He was ahead of his time when it came to things like solar power and he was a real proponent of solar power,” Walsh said.

When his children were teenagers, Boates built them an indoor swimming pool that was passively heated by the sun.

Walsh said Boates would buy trucks or tractors that had been written off, rebuild them, and put them back to work. Walsh admired that Boates was very frugal in his approach to repurposing items into valuable pieces of practical equipment.

Boates could ‘do anything’

Alex Walsh, of Rockland, said he got to know Boates through his grandparents. His grandmother used to tell a story from when Alex was young.

“When I was a little boy, I’d ask, ‘Can Keith actually do everything?’” Walsh said. “She said, ‘Yes, Keith actually can do everything.’ When I got older, I realized he actually can do anything.”

Walsh said Boates built his own cider press after simply looking at others that were professionally manufactured.

Boates built his own geothermal heating system for his house. Walsh said Boates would call his grandmother and they’d compare notes on the cost of their heating systems.

“His is made out of parts for a commercial cooler, some pipe, and a heat exchanger inside of his oil furnace ducting. It was 100 per cent homemade and he came up with it on his own, that was in his ’80s,” Walsh said.

He said you’d never know what you were going to see when you went to visit Boates. Walsh said Boates lived through it all and kept up on all the technological changes.

Walsh remembers Boates telling him that he had to replace a part of the boiler in his Stanley Steamer. It involved drilling about 10,000 holes in a metal plate. One winter, Boates sat in his garage running a drill press. Walsh said it probably took Boates days if not weeks to drill all the holes to make the part he needed.

Walsh described Boates as an “amazing man” with an “amazing mind” who was very progressive and ahead of his time when it came to things like green energy.

Boates is survived by his wife Charlotte (Ritcey) of 69 years; children, Janet (Doug) McDougall; Heather Boates (Ken Graham); and Brian (Karma Chickoski); grandchildren, Kyle (Sally), Sean (Joline), Sofia (Quincy), Lee (Jill), Kaleb and Clark; great-grandchildren, Isabelle and Calvin; brother Matthew (Holly) and sister Catherine Green, along with nieces and nephews.

A celebration of life will be held at the Woodville Community Hall on Feb. 11 from 2 to 4 p.m.