Obituary - Keith Hobson

Keith Hobson at the Palazzo Versace on a visit to family in Australia

Keith Hobson died suddenly on Thursday morning (12 January) at the age of 64.

Keith moved to Rochdale at the age of 16 and started work as an apprentice motor mechanic at Hilliers on Oldham Road.

He subsequently worked at All Parts car scrap yard on Stuart Street in Rochdale and owned a motor spares shop on Durham Street - during this time he took up banger car racing.

Following the banger racing Keith took up drag car racing, building a junior dragster with friends and racing it at Santa Pod Raceway.

Keith had a complete change of direction when he became a DJ. An excellent roller skater he was a DJ at Roller City in its early years and had stints at a number of clubs in Rochdale.

Keith and his wife Doreen then became the landlord and landlady of The Tanners pub in Heywood.

Following his time as a landlord, Keith bought the Interlink parcel delivery franchise for Rochdale and having grown that successfully went on to buy two more Interlink franchises in Warrington and Preston.

Disaster struck in 2003 when at the age of just 51 he had a massive heart attack whilst on a cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. He was flown to Texas and underwent a quadruple heart bypass operation.

The heart attack, and prolonged recovery, forced the sale of his parcel delivery business and he subsequently became the Managing Director of a business in Manchester.

Keith's wife of 40 years, Doreen, died in 2016 after a long battle with COPD.

Keith, who lived in Morecambe, had no children of his own but brought up Doreen's four children - Mark, Carl, Tracey and Tina - with her.

Speaking about Keith, his 83-year-old mother Pauline Journeaux said: "He was a wonderful son and we are devastated, he will be greatly missed."