Milo S. Ketchum, Jr.
Milo Ketchum, a noted Structural Engineer and educator who achieved national and international recognition for his pioneering work in thin shell concrete roofs and space frame structures, died December eighth 1999 at Porter Hospice in Denver, Colorado. He was 89.
Mr. Ketchum was born in Denver on March 8, 1910, the youngest of three children of Esther and Milo (Sr.) Ketchum. He was raised in Boulder Colorado, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and Urbana Illinois where his father was Dean of Engineering. He attended the University of Illinois where he earned Bachelors (1931) and Masters (1932) degrees in Civil Engineering.
He founded his structural engineering practice in Denver in 1945. Over the following 44 years, his firm gained widespread recognition for design of innovative building structures. Its award-winning structures include the TWA airframe overhaul facility in Kansas City (winner of the 1973 American Consulting Engineers Council outstanding engineering achievement award) and the University of Idaho football stadium (winner of the 1976 American Society of Civil Engineers outstanding structural engineering achievement award).
His firm, originally known as Milo S. Ketchum Consulting Engineer, took on Partners and ultimately became known as KKBNA Inc., with several branch offices. The firm's best-known Denver-area projects in which he took part include Currigan Hall at the Denver Convention Center, McNichols Arena, the Marriott Hotel, and the International Center at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. He was also responsible for structural design of the McDonnell Planetarium at the St. Louis Science Center, the Morris Mechanics Theater in Baltimore, and the Mummers Theater in Oklahoma, among other buildings.
Mr. Ketchum’s initial passion in engineering was Dirigible airships. This field of engineering disappeared, however, after the USS Akron and Hindenberg disasters. His early career therefore included work as a surveyor in Yellowstone Park laying out U.S. Route 20, for the Bureau of Reclamation in Colorado, for the Portland Cement Association in Chicago, and as Professor at Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland.
In Cleveland, Mr. Ketchum met and married Gretchen Allenbach. They were a team from that time onward. Mrs. Ketchum, who died in 1990, was his partner in family, vocations, and avocations. In addition to sharing his interests, Mrs. Ketchum was a librarian, musician, and civic leader. They had four children.
After building his engineering practice in Denver for nearly 20 years, Mr. Ketchum moved to Old Saybrook, Connecticut in 1962. He operated a branch office of his firm there until 1967, when he took a position as Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. There he was known for his devotion to teaching, and for his Senior design project course in which students built scale models of their building designs. He retired from the University in 1978, after having taught and mentored many civil engineering students. During this period, he still participated on projects with his firm. He also took the opportunity to build and sail boats on the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound, an interest he had first developed in Cleveland.
Mr. Ketchum returned to Denver in 1980, where he continued as a consultant to his firm. One of his last built projects is the Evans Street pedestrian bridge at Denver University. The firm that had grown from his original consultancy became Martin-Martin Consulting Engineers in Wheatridge, Colorado in 1989. In his latter years, he dedicated himself to caring for his wife, to writing and consulting on structural engineering issues, and to writing a World Wide Web site about his interests, at http://home.inet-access.com/mketchum/
During his life, Mr. Ketchum wrote several books and many technical papers. Early written correspondence between Mr. Ketchum and the Swiss engineer Robert Maillart led to papers in Engineering News-Record about Maillart’s thin arch bridges in Switzerland. As an engineering researcher, he made significant contributions in the field of photoelasticity, a pre-computer method of predicting behavior of structures. His Handbook of Structural Details for Buildings became a widely used desk reference for many engineering firms. He actively promoted thin shell concrete roof construction, with several published technical papers and many lectures.
His writing and other professional activities earned Mr. Ketchum many honors and awards, including the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Illinois, Honorary Doctorate from the University of Colorado, The Turner Gold Medal from the American Concrete Institute, Honorary Member of the American Concrete Institute, Honorary Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and Member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Mr. Ketchum is survived by his daughter, Marcia Baird of Denver Colorado; three sons, David Ketchum of Cheyenne Wyoming, Matthew Ketchum of Denver Colorado, and Mark Ketchum of Berkeley California; and six grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at Horan & McConaty Funeral Home at 1091 S. Colorado Blvd, Denver Colorado, at 3PM on Friday, December 17th, 1999. Donations may be made to "University of Connecticut Foundation in memory of Milo Ketchum." The address of the Foundation is: University Foundation, 2390 Alumni Drive, U-206, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269.