DONALD M. KEHN

1923-2017

DONALD MOREHEAD KEHN, loving husband, father, and grandfather, entered into rest on Saturday, March 18, 2017, age 93, at the nursing facility where he had lived for the past five years.

DONALD was born on the Kehn family farm near Delmar, Iowa on August 5, 1923 to Forrest and Adah Kehn. He graduated from Maquoketa High School in 1941, and attended the University of Iowa where he took his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering. He went into the U.S. Army in 1944 and was assigned to research in the secret Chemical & Biological Warfare laboratories at Camp Detrick, MD., where he worked under Theodor Rosebury. Later, after O.C.S. , he was sent to Kassel, Germany as a 2nd Lieutenant, and part of postwar U. S. occupation forces. He returned to civilian life in 1946 and became employed by the Phillips Petroleum Co. in Borger, TX. There he met DORTHA LOU WILSON, a recent graduate of North Texas State working as a librarian. They fell in love and were married on Dec. 31, 1949 in Denton, TX. Don and Dot moved to Houston, and he re-entered college at Rice Institute (now University) to acquire his Master’s degree. He then became employed by Humble Oil—eventually Exxon— where he worked in the Production Research facility for over 30 yrs. A member of several professional engineering associations, he retired in December, 1984. Additionally, he established substantial scholarship funds at the University of Iowa and at Rice University.

In Sept. 1988, his wife Dortha suffered a series of cerebral hemorrhages that left her a paralyzed invalid. Don took care of her for the remaining 18 years of her life with remarkable attentiveness, patience, and love.

They were enthusiastic travelers, and visited Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, the Greek islands and several more countries before Dot’s affliction. Don continued to travel and enjoyed a number of elder hostel trips in later years. An avid bibliophile— with tastes running from Eric Hoffer to Thorstein Veblen to E. O. Wilson—for 60 yrs Don was a dedicated member of the Great Books Foundation and other reading groups. He was an amateur painter and left numerous canvases of his own work. He loved and appreciated classical music, another trait he passed to both of his sons—DONALD M. KEHN, JR. of Houston, and DAVID F. KEHN of Parker, Colorado. He is survived by one sister, JOYCE LYON of Davis, Calif., along with many loving nieces & nephews, and his granddaughter, ADRIENNE CELESTE KEHN of Burlington, Vermont. He was preceded in death by his wife of 56 years, Dortha, and by his brother GERALD KEHN.

Flowers can be sent to Forest Park Westheimer Funeral Home.