ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ken formally retired from Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in February 2002 after a thirty-four-year career in NASA’s deep-space exploration program. This included developing advanced mission ideas, managing JPL’s Power Systems Section, Command and Data Systems Section, and finally, NASA’s pioneering sample-return Stardust Mission to comet Wild 2. As a retiree, he returned to JPL in a part-time role providing leadership for training and mentoring project managers and planners. He fully retired in May 2008.-

Before JPL, he served nine years as an officer and pilot in the U.S. Air Force, flying aircraft from SAC four-engine aerial refueling planes to bush planes and supersonic jets. He also served on a SAC Minuteman ICBM crew during the Cuban Missile Crisis, later as commander of his own crew.

Ken holds an aeronautical engineering (AE) BS degree from St. Louis University (’58), an aerospace engineering MS from the Air Force Institute of Technology (’66), and PhD in Aerospace Engineering (AE) from the University of Illinois (’74). Over his career he authored over thirty technical papers, and a number of magazine articles, and essays

Honors include NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal (’93) and Outstanding Leadership Medal (’99), the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Illinois Aerospace Engineering Department (’99) and induction to his high school Hall of Fame (2005). In 2013 he was honored by St. Louis University with the Oliver L. Parks 2013 Alumni Merit Award.

Married over sixty-four years, Ken and Barbara have a son, Lee, and daughter, Laurie, along with four grandchildren.