George H. Kennedy

George, longtime Professor and former Head of the Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), died on Friday morning June 7, after a short illness. George was born in Seattle, Washington on April 24, 1936. He received a Bachelors of Science in Chemistry from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D from Oregon State University. After several industrial positions, he joined the CSM faculty in 1965.

He is survived by Kay Rife Kennedy, his loving wife of 51 years, son Joseph (Robin Lee) of Centennial and daughter Jill Kennedy of Golden. He was preceded in death in 1996 by his brother, Richard Kennedy of Salem, Oregon. He is remembered and will be sorely missed by hundreds of former students, friends and colleagues. He was an excellent teacher, outstanding academic leader and caring and compassionate friend.

George was an avid and enthusiastic outdoorsman, and climbed all 54 of Colorado's 14,000+ foot mountain peaks, plus several mountains in Switzerland and New Zealand. Camping, hunting, fishing and hiking, generally accompanied by family or close friends, played an important part in his life. He was an avid scuba diver and dove in Fiji and the Great Barrier Reef. He loved burros and raised 5 over the course of his time in Golden. He and Kay and friends built their home in Golden and a log cabin on the Siletz River in Oregon, where they enjoyed many happy times of relaxation and communion with friends and nature.

Among George's proudest achievements were his successes in classroom teaching at CSM. He received consistent high praise in student evaluation from both undergraduate and graduate students and was awarded CSM's outstanding teacher award in 1992. He also served as President of the CSM faculty in 1992-93. As Department Head, George skillfully and patiently guided the Department from an almost exclusively service and teaching role to one that combined excellence in education with original research in Chemistry and Geochemistry. He has sabbatical appointments at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, The University of Auckland in New Zealand and the University of Tasmania in Australia. He retired from CSM in 2003. Since retirement he and Kay enjoyed traveling to Europe, South America, and numerous places in the United States. He also made several fishing and sailing trips to Alaska during this time.

A Celebration of George's Life will be scheduled in mid-July in Colorado and in mid-August in Oregon. The family asks that contributions in lieu of flowers be made to The Nature Conservancy of Colorado, 2424 Spruce Street., Boulder, CO 80302.