Keith Reeves Rodney, an insurance executive, public servant, avid sailor and skier, died March 6, at his home in Boston’s North End waterfront. A Chappaquiddick summer resident, he was 67 and suffered from esophageal cancer.

A founder, with James M. Stone, of the Plymouth Rock Assurance Company in Boston in 1982, Keith Rodney helped create a new kind of auto insurance company defined by innovative customer service, a commitment to independent agents, and a creative workplace that empowered employees. The company was the first to offer mobile claim processing and special customer services to alleviate the burden of arranging for car repairs after an accident. He left the company in 2000.

The son of Emile and Ann Rodney, Keith Rodney was raised in Elizabeth, N.J. and Pittsford, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester. A graduate of Syracuse University, Keith was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. On graduation he married his college sweetheart, Elsie Schneider, an art student at Syracuse and a native of Wayland. They moved first to the Boston area, then to Fredericksburg, Va., where he served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He then returned to Boston to join the accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand, one of the major firms at the time, earning his CPA. He handled audits for insurance and financial service clients, and bought his first sports car, a red Fiat.

An insurance industry expert, Keith Rodney was appointed deputy insurance commissioner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1975. He moved on to serve as deputy director for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington, D.C. in the Carter administration.

An avid sailor and racer, Keith Rodney owned and captained a series of racing sloops, all named Sheerness, after “sheer,” the bow-to-aft curvature along a ship’s deck. To stay abreast of the sport’s competitive technology he designed and built a Taylor 41 racing sloop, and then designed a second one when the first was no longer competitive. He donated the first to the Maine Maritime Academy.

Racing took him well beyond Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay to regattas on Martha’s Vineyard, where he owned a summer home, to Cape Cod and Buzzards Bay, to Newport and Long Island Sound, to Florida and Key West, and the Caribbean. He won and placed in numerous races including first place in the Edgartown Yacht Club’s round the Island race in 1992, first place in the Feeder Race, from Miami to Key West in 1996, and first overall in Key West Race Week in 1997. He attracted crewmembers (and friends) from around the world for racing weeks and weekend adventures. With his last Sheerness, a 52-foot cruising sloop, he sailed the French West Indies from his home port in English Harbor, Antigua. He achieved his captain’s license in 2010.

He became an enthusiastic downhill skier and was a regular visitor to southern Vermont ski areas, with his fiancée, Ellen Federman. His house in West Dover, Vt., was a weekend and holiday gathering place for friends and family from December through March every year for more than a decade.

Keith and Ellen travelled together to Europe and Asia. Later, in retirement, Keith travelled more frequently to Asia, Europe and Latin America.

He is survived by two children from his first marriage, a son, Keith Damon Rodney, who with his wife, Rachel Cohen, lives in Wilmington, Vt., and a daughter, Erica Rothenberg, who with her husband, Stephen Rothenberg, lives in Marlborough; two grandchildren, Samuel and Bradford Rothenberg; a brother, Bradford Rodney, who lives with his wife, Gail, in New York city; and two sisters, Margaret Mullen, who lives with her husband, James Mullen, in Cromwell, Conn., and Ann Rodney of Cambridge, Massachusetts; as well as nieces and nephews, Sydney Mullen, Whitney Mullen Westhelle, and William Rodney. He was formerly married to Elsie Schneider Rodney of Wayland, and to Laurel Seneca of Newburyport. His numerous romances and many friendships also live beyond his death.

A memorial service is being planned for later in March in Boston.