Community:Keith

Keith Lucas, known by the mononym and Roblox username Keith, is the seventh user to join Roblox who joined on July 20, 2004 (ID changed to 22) and an administrator who joined the team in March 2008 as the Product Manager. He currently holds the position of "Vice President of Engineering and Operations" on the team. He has his own Roblox toy for his work with the company. Keith is mostly inactive on the site itself however, as he has not been online since December 14, 2018 according to Roblox endpoints. He does not take anything down by request, and was formerly an Aeronautics and Astronautics engineer before joining Roblox.

Thread
"I first met Erik in January, 1997 when I applied to be a part-time customer service engineer for Knowledge Revolution. A few friends kept telling me about this cool little company that made physics simulation software for Boeing, Lockheed, & Ford. Erik was VP of Engineering, and David Baszucki was CEO. In a short time, I learned the secret of Knowledge Revolution’s success — Dave’s Audacity of Vision coupled with Erik’s Capacity to Deliver. They were optimistic and fast, and no other company I looked at could compete. I was thrilled to receive a full time offer to work on Erik’s team.

Erik taught me to be an engineer. I had just finished my 10th or so year of engineering school, but I hadn’t learned to be an engineer until I met Erik. Engineering is about iterating. It’s getting something working and making it better. It’s making something better by watching it work. My education taught me to think, understand and plan. Erik taught me to do and learn.

Erik’s unique talent was being able to instantly shift from rapid prototyping to delivering the highest quality production code. Erik built much of ROBLOX’s original web infrastructure, and we marvel today at how much it has scaled, and, especially, at how one person built so much, so well, in so little time. It is beyond unique. Over the years, Erik continuously inspired me to iterate, to deliver fast, and to know when to demand quality. His spirit is the basis of our engineering culture, and his conduct inspired the ROBLOX core values.

Though Erik had a profound impact on my career, I will always remember him first and foremost as a friend. We watched a ton of movies together, mostly really bad ones, but that was good. He helped my wife and I move into our first house. He shared in my daughter’s arrival, and we celebrated birthdays together. We shared many a beer, and lots of good food. We shared laughter most of all, and I am comforted to know that I put more than a few smiles on his already smiling face.

I liked Erik immediately and immensely. He was an incredible guy; a genuine, fundamentally decent human being. It has been a pleasure over the years to come to know him both as a colleague and as a friend, and it saddens me deeply to realize that the journey together only goes this far.

To anybody who spent much time in Erik’s company, it quickly became apparent that he was gifted in many ways. He possessed a formidable intellect, a generous spirit, uncanny engineering instincts, a joyful sense of humor and an industrious work ethic, just to name a few. But I think Erik’s greatest gift was one that is less conspicuous, in that you couldn’t see it by looking at him. Rather, you had to look to yourself and those around you to appreciate Erik’s wonderful ability to inspire. Working alongside him, I routinely found myself wanting to accomplish more audacious things, to undertake them with a higher standard of excellence, to worry less about why some people say they can’t be done and find out simply by doing. That was Erik’s way, of course, and it was contagious.

I’m proud to have worked together with Erik at ROBLOX and honored to have been his friend. The grief over losing him is great, but the inspiration that comes from having known him is greater still. Thank you, Erik. I miss you already."