I am so very sorry to hear Ken has passed.

My daughter, Emma, and I met Ken under the shuttle Enterprise at the Smithsonian's Udvar Hazy museum.

Emma and I took a day off from NARAM 50 and went to the Smithsonian. We were looking at the model rocket collection which was just adjacent to the port wing of the Enterprise. I happened to look over under the shuttle and noticed Vern and Gleda on a tour with Ken. Emma and I walked over, introduced ourselves, and then went to look at the (totally pathetic) model rocket display. It was frankly embarassing to be there with Vern and Gleda and see virtually no Estes items on display.

After that visit Ken started a movement to get Air and Space to display a better representation of their considerable collection of model rocketry artifacts. We communicated frequently about various approaches. The bottom line is that we were both totally appalled when they let us know they would be willing to display more items if we would purchase new display case(s) for which they charge $50,000 apiece. We were both just totally disgusted.

I honestly believe the creation of the National Model Rocketry Museum at a non-Smithsonian facility resulted from that very unfortunate attitude Ken and I experienced.

After that we communicated intermittently over the years to discuss some serious health issues. I was so very impressed with his ability to overcome very difficult changes. We also talked about a few models he did for Estes. The Skywriter pencil rocket was his design as was the 36 D Squared.

In 2015, when his mom passed, Ken lost the main storage area for most of his collection, so he sold off most of it.

Ken was a good friend.

I will miss him.