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Kennon Bailey Stewart was born on 15 Sep 1930 in Decatur, AL, the
second child of Kennon Stewart and Lilley Alma Talley Stewart. His older
brother, James Thomas Stewart, was born on 8 Jun 1929. His father was a bridge
foreman with Southern Railways, and his mother taught school.
Ken’s first ten years were spent in Decatur until his father
bought a farm near Holly, MS, near the homesteads of the grandparents. His
father thought learning farming was the proper way for young boys to grow up and
prepare themselves for adulthood.
Ken graduated from Alcorn County High School in 1948 and is still
praised by classmates for his brilliance, especially in mathematics and science.
His ambition at that time was to be a good farmer, but the death of his mother
and a downturn in farming led him to join the Army. He waited until the summer
and fall crops were in, walked into Corinth, MS, the nearest town, and enlisted.
He later commented that joining the Army was the only thing he ever did without
thinking it through.
Basic training was at Ft. Smith, AR, followed by a Signal Corps
assignment to Ft. Monmouth, NJ. In the spring of 1949, at morning assembly,
there was an announcement about a competitive exam for Army Preparatory School
positions and possible appointment to West Point. Ken thought nothing of this,
but his captain had recognized Ken’s abilities. He called Ken into his office
and informed him that he would take this exam. Ken figured this was a better
choice than being on K. P. duty, so he did so. His results led to a rapid
clearing of post and assignment to the Preparatory School at Stewart AFB in
Newburgh, NY. It was a year of classes and hard studying and ended with an exam
for the 16 available appointments to West Point. In April 1950, Ken learned that he had qualified for one
of the coveted slots.
Ken entered the Academy on 5 Jul 1950. Parts of the next four
years were difficult, compounded by the death of his brother in Korea. Ken later
joked that he almost didn’t make it through West Point due to two foreign
languages: Russian and English. Ken spent four years in Cadet Company G-1, where
he was
highly respected by all for his academic brilliance and his
genial personality. He graduated 64th out of a class of 633 and stood second in
his class in electrical engineering and seventh in mechanical engineering. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant
in the Field Artillery on 4 Jun 1954 and graduated on 8 Jun 1954.
After graduation leave he reported to Ft. Bliss, TX, for
artillery training, completed Airborne School that autumn and was sent to
Mannheim, Germany in early 1955. In mid-1956 his unit was transferred to
Kaiserslautern, and in February 1957 he was sent to the Intelligence School in
Oberammergau, Bavaria. There he met and courted a young teacher from Texas,
Patti Ballou. They married in March 1958, by which time Ken had decided to
resign from the Army.
Ken accepted an engineering job with the Westinghouse
Corporation. The young couple lived in six places the first six months after
they were married, finally settling in Athens, GA where they stayed for four
years. Their son, Jeffrey Thomas, was born there in January 1960. Ken received
his Professional Engineering license from Georgia in 1960 and in June 1962
accepted a mechanical engineering job with Dow Chemical, requiring the family to
move to Wheat Ridge, CO.
Ken left Dow in September 1966 to become the head mechanical
engineer with the architecture/engineering firm of Rogers/Nagel/Langhart. His
specialty became Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC). Two of his
big projects were HVAC systems for the Mountain Bell Service Center and a
large facility using solar energy.
In 1976, Ken opened his own engineering business and successfully
designed various projects until 1993. These included schools, office buildings,
shopping centers, and recreational facilities. A former employee praised Ken as
one of the smartest men he ever knew and stated that he was a whiz at any form
of engineering.
Outside of engineering, Ken’s interests were reading and
following football, basketball, hockey, baseball, and golf, especially on
television at the professional level. In his youth Ken had attended the Southern
Baptist Church and the Presbyterian Church in Athens, GA. In 1967, instruction
led to his confirmation in the Episcopal Church and service as an usher at St. James Episcopal Church for almost 30 years. He belonged to
Christ Episcopal Church from 1993–1999, returning to St. James while he lived in
Wheat Ridge, CO.
Ken traveled to most of the 50 states and was especially
delighted with an autumn trip to New England, winter trips to Florida and South
Texas, three engineering conventions in California, and the international
heating, ventilating, and air conditioning convention in Vancouver, British
Columbia, in 1989. He fulfilled a longtime wish in 1992 with a driving trip to
Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. Highlights were driving the Pacific
coastal highway from the Canadian border to Eureka, CA, seeing redwoods, Crater Lake, and circling the major
mountains of the area, such as Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier. Returning to Europe had
not appealed to Ken, but he did go to Scotland in 1988 as a celebration of his
and Patti’s 30th wedding anniversary. He attempted to look up family heritage
and genealogy, but Stewart was just too common of a name.
Ken Stewart is survived by his former wife Patti, his son Jeffrey
Thomas and his wife Mary, and two grandsons, Kyle Thomas Stewart and Daniel
Kennon Stewart. Ken will be remembered as an outstanding engineer and a fine, honest Christian man.
— Prepared by his son Jeff Stewart
in coordination with Bill Epling
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