Masire married Gladys Olebile Masire in 1958.
Sir Quett and Lady Masire had six children.
Masire became the new nation's Vice-President,
serving under Seretse Khama, in 1966.
Masire's three full terms were characterised by an emphasis
on developments through regional and international organisations.
Khama died on 13 July 1980, and Masire automatically became acting president per the Constitution.
The plane was damaged and Masire was injured, but the
co-pilot was able to make a successful emergency landing.
On 1 April 1998, when Vice-President Festus Mogae succeeded Masire as President, Khama was appointed as the new Vice-President.
Masire was born on 23 July 1925 in Kanye,
Botswana into a cattle herding family to Gaipone(née Kgopo) and Joni Masire.
Five days after Khama's death, Masire was elected as President by secret ballot at the National Assembly on 18 July 1980.
In 2007,
Sir Ketumile Masire set up the Sir Ketumile Masire Foundation to promote the social
and economic well being of the society of Botswana.
As a principal architect of Botswana's steady
economic and infastructural growth between 1966 and 1980, Masire earned a reputation as a highly competent technocrat.
In 1950, after graduating from Tiger Kloof, Masire helped found the Seepapitso II Secondary School,
the first institution of higher learning in the Bangwaketse Reserve.
However, the ruling party won decisively at the national level,
thus allowing Masire to maintain his position as one of the four"specially elected" members of Parliament.
Resenting Bathoen's many petty interferences in school affairs, Masire, working through the revived Bechuanaland African Teachers Association,
became an advocate for the autonomy of protectorate schools from chiefly authority.
Masire was chairman of the Southern African Development Community
and vice chairman of the Organisation of African Unity; he was also chairman of the Global Coalition for Africa and a member of the UN group on Africa Development.