The movement saw the Golden Shears of Great Britain established in 1963, and further development worldwide, including the first World Championships in England in 1977, the event to be held every two to four years becoming known as the Golden Shears World Championships.
As a result of being society president, Keats became chairman of the Golden Shears World Council when it was formed in Euroa, Australia, soon after the second World Championships, in Masterton, in 1980.
It was to bring another four of its 20 World Championships to the town, the latest in March this year, and another to New Zealand, in Invercargill.
His elevation to the roles came at a time made even busier, with a three-year term as the Opaki Riding representative on the Masterton County Council.
News of his passing stretched across the world, with current Golden Shears World Council chairman George Graham extending condolences on behalf of the international fraternity.
“Laurie was a man of extraordinary vision and a natural-born leader as well as being a devoted family man.
“It was an honour to have him attend as our patron guest at our last Golden Shears World Council meeting [in Masterton in March], and I also had the honour of sitting next to him on the Saturday night in Masterton for all the finals.
“It is because of Laurie’s foresight and people’s skills that the world of shearing and woolhandling is in such a great place today.
“Thank you, Laurie, you will be sorely missed. Please know you have left a lasting legacy not only in Masterton but all over the globe.”
Despite the commitment, Keats still found time to become a globetrotting shearer around the age of 50, shearing in places such as the UK, Yugoslavia and the Falklands.
Another legacy is the Wool Shed National Museum of Sheep and Shearing, established in 2005 just a few hundred metres from the stadium, in two old woolsheds – the Wilton woolshed from Rangitumau and the Glendonald woolshed from Bideford – relocated to the town, and renovated for the purpose.
In keeping with the culture of the Golden Shears, the museum is run mainly by volunteers.
As chairman of Wairarapa District Young Farmers Club, which led the founding of the Shears, or “Goldies”, as it became known to competitors, Keats turned his dream of winning a big open title into a lifetime of administration.
But the handpiece was never far away.
In 2009, when media tracked him down after he was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, he was, at the age of 75, crutching lambs on the farm.
The following March he competed in the veterans events at the 50th Golden Shears, an event which, at its peak, filled the stadium with as many as 2500 spectators.
As patron, he was among the spectators again this year, when the Shears, amid another World Championships, attracted 630 entries, making it the biggest-ever single shearing competition event worldwide.
He called it “A Lucky Life”, the title of the book he wrote and which was published in 2012, for he was shy of the personal acclaim.
At the time of his MNZM, Keats told the Wairarapa Times-Age: “It’s pretty easy to look like you’re important in the Golden Shears when you’ve got 200 volunteers working for you.”
He never envisaged what the future held when he won his first Young Farmers shearing competition in 1948, aged just 14, and when 10 years later he was “one of many” behind the staging of a Masterton A and P Show competition that became the seed from which the Golden Shears grew.
It leapt ahead with the notion that the stadium, opened in 1958, could house for one week a year a six-stand shearing board and pens which made household names of such shearing legends as Golden Shears open champions Brian “Snow” Quinn and Sir David Fagan, and in its expansion woolhandling champions such as Joanne Kumeroa and Joel Henare.
As with many in Golden Shears, family became involved, including daughter Deb, who became a Golden Shears secretary and office manager.
Keats’ son Evan died in 2022, and he is survived by daughter Deb, second wife Judy, stepdaughter Jane, and stepsons Stuart and Andrew, his grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
A funeral notice said donations to the Shear History Trust would be appreciated.