Yellowknife (May 12/04) - The measure of a man in a close-knit business community like Yellowknife is not made by how much money he has put in your pocket, but by how much he has given back to the community.

Keith Houghton: a businessman, coach, husband and father; died of a heart attack on Friday, May 7. - NNSL file photo

Keith Houghton was just that. The managing partner of Ryfan Electric and leader in the business and sports community died of a heart attack Friday night. He was 51 years old.

Houghton had been to the hospital repeatedly the week prior to the attack and had been sent home.

Houghton apprenticed as an electrician in Alberta in the early 1970s while working on projects such as Lethbridge University.

Shortly after earning his journeyman certificate, Houghton became general foreman of crews as large as 50 on major projects in Calgary.

In the 1980s, he secured certified electrical technician standing with the Alberta Society of Engineering Technologists. Houghton moved to Yellowknife in 1986 to serve as assistant project manager with the Stanton Hospital board, charged with building the 135-bed facility.

He then signed on as an electrical systems designer with Ferguson, Simek, Clark Architects and Engineers (FSC) for three years before heading up FSC's construction venture in Russia, where he oversaw completion of a $60 million mini-city between 1990 and 1994.

In late 1994, Houghton partnered with Jack McCurdy to purchase J.T. Electric (1995) Ltd.

Houghton bought out JT Electric and his company merged with Ryfan Electric last year to form the largest independent electrical contracting company in the Northwest Territories, said family friend and Air Tindi partner Alex Arychuk.

Houghton was a visionary, said Ryfan partner Ric Bolivar.

"He was always pushing the envelope and raising the bar. I used to kid him about my having to hold the string to rein in his balloon," said Bolivar.

Houghton was also chairman of the Business Incentive Policy (BIP) with the Northwest Territories Construction Association.

Houghton and the Construction Association successfully shelved proposed changes to the BIP last year, the association's executive director Don Worrall confirmed.

Sports enthusiast

Lynn Fowler met Houghton in the mid '80s when he moved to Yellowknife. Playing as a broomball goaltender, Houghton won the Most Valuable Player Award in the 1988 broomball nationals.

"He took over as coach of the Ravens in 1989 and he coached for the Ravens until 1997. He was always a big supporter of broomball. For all those years he never gave up the sport. It's a big loss," said Fowler.

Good ol' Howie

Tyler Dean was coached by Houghton for a number of years.

"He was the first coach of the junior program. In 1990 he canvassed all the high schools and got a bunch of us together and formed the Westown Wheelers," said Dean.

It was about then that Houghton received the nickname "Howie."

"Howie always stressed we weren't just joining a team, we were joining a classy organization," Dean said.

Houghton coached the Westown Wheelers to a junior national fourth-place finish in 1993.

Then in 1994, the team won gold on the "B" side -- essentially fifth place. That year, Howie won the coach of the year award at the Canadian Nationals.

"He was very much a coach and a mentor to me from the time I was 13 to 18 years old, and for a young man that's a very impressionable time.

"As I grew up, we became good friends," said Dean.

Houghton is survived by his wife Wendy and four sons: Mark, Chris, Michael and David.