About Our Name

We have found over the years that many people want to know more about our company name, abbreviation, logo, and tag line with the most frequent question being – “Who is Keith?” So here you go.

Our company abbreviation:

Our company abbreviation is of course KEITH ^SM. Why talk about it before the full company name? Well, the abbreviation came first. Keith was my Dad. Several years before I started KEITH ^SM I thought about what sort of company name I might one day use. I decided that it’d have to have a unique acronym (that being an abbreviation using the first letter of each word in the full name, such as with OSHA).

There were many an Environmental this or that, or a Safety whatever and I wanted to stand out from the crowd. I thought about my last name, Klane, and what I could do with the letter “K”. Only one thing came to mind immediately and that was my Dad’s name "Keith". He always had a license plate with his initials “KCK” on his vehicles so it always had stuck in my mind that his first and last names both started with the same letter. I loved my Dad dearly, so it was obvious that “KEITH” would be the company acronym. Now came the tough part, what would it all stand for?

Our company name:

So, with the acronym “KEITH”, the challenge became what would it stand for. The easy part was that the “K” stood for Klane or Klane’s. What about the rest – the E, I, T, and H? Although we perform Environmental, Industrial hygiene, and Training services, it struck us as a bit limiting given our diversity of services. Also, the “H” in hygiene confused matters and was not in the right place for spelling "KEITH" for that matter.

Much of what we do and do well, is to provide training services and information. As a still active college instructor, education seemed a natural for the “E”. OK, so far we had “Klane’s Education Information Training H...". But what about the “H”? We needed to wrap it up and it felt like we needed to put a noun at the end. But what noun that began with “H” would work? Hub is the center of anything and the only other “H” noun we could think of that might work was “house” - nah. So “Hub” it was. Done. Thus Klane’s Education Information Training Hub ^SM was born.

Our namesake:

Click here to view pictures of Keith Klane!

Click here to view a video clip of Keith Klane!

So, as you’ve learned the company acronym stands for the founder’s Dad’s first name, Keith. Keith Klane (1929-1996) was a footwear salesman in the wholesale arena. He was a WWII navy veteran stationed on the battleship USS Birmingham in the South Pacific war theater. He was a Worshipful Master of the Mount Scopus Masonic Lodge in Malden, MA. He was married to Ethel L. “Peachy” Klane for 45 years until his death. And he was my Dad. 

Click here to read Keith Klane’s obituary.

Our logo:

So, what’s with the footprints and the squiggly line in between them? Well if you read about our company namesake, you know that Keith Klane sold footwear to shoe stores throughout the northeast. He loved the ocean – symbolized by the wave and shore “squiggly” line with one foot in the water and one foot on the beach. Also, of course I am walking in his footsteps to an extent. Although I don’t sell shoes, I am my father’s son.

Our “tag line”:

“Take a step in the right direction” ^SM

Well, if you’ve read about our company namesake and logo, you know that Keith Klane was a shoe salesman. But also, of course we feel that we offer quality services and that using our services is taking a step in the right direction for your organization – as well as ours, too, of course.

What does the little “SM” mean anyway?

“SM” stands for “Service Mark”. It is similar and equivalent to Trade Mark or “TM” that is commonly used for products whereas “SM” is used for services. SM and TM are used prior to and in preparation for applying for the “registered” mark ®.

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