March 12, 1957 - November 20, 2024
Courtesy of Ahlgrim & Sons Funeral and Cremation Services:
Keyvan "Key" Claude Rafii, of Schaumberg, age 67, passed on November 20th 2024 after a long battle with Crohn's disease. He was the loving husband of Linda Rafii, father of Margaux-lin Rafii, brother to Cyrus Rafii and Yasmine Rafii.
He was born in Chicago on March 12th 1957 to Iranian immigrant parents, both of whom were physicians. At the age of 2, his parents returned to Iran where he lived the next 4 years and went to an English language school in Shiraz. In 1964, the family returned to the states, settling in Oak Park. Subsequently, the family moved to Northfield in 1968.
Key attended Sunset Ridge elementary school and graduated from New Trier West HS in 1975. He received a bachelor's degree in Architecture from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He developed a love of architectural history and completed a PhD also at the U of I. His thesis was on public buildings and civic pride in northern Germany from 1200-1618. He spent many months living and traveling through Germany during this time and became fluent in German.
Keyvan was an avid reader and had an encyclopedic knowledge of world architectural history. He loved traveling and eventually visited many of the great castles, cathedrals and public buildings throughout Europe. He was also a gifted linguist and became fluent in Polish and competent in several other languages.
He was also passionate about classical music and could recount detailed biographies of hundreds of composers with amazing accuracy. He amassed a collection of albums and CDs numbering in the thousands.
Keyvan was employed as a professor of art and architectural history at Judson University and the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. Students praised his passion and breadth of knowledge for his subjects while also noting that he was not an easy grader and thus pushed his students to study hard and learn the material well.
Though he was a brilliant academician, to his friends and family he often displayed a silly humor that was most endearing. He created goofy nicknames for his siblings, parents, wife and daughter that have endured the test of time. Though a shy person by nature, he blossomed when he met Linda, whom he married in 1995. Linda and Keyvan adopted Margaux in 2001 and she has brought them much joy. Keyvan will be dearly missed by all that knew him. |