Kenneth Charles Vlach

Kenneth Charles Vlach Ken passed away from congestive heart failure on May 14 at a St. Petersburg, Florida nursing home. He was born in Milwaukee on September 19, 1953 to Charles and Marcella (nee' Niemuth) Vlach. He grew up in Raymond, Wisconsin, and graduated with high honors from Union Grove Union High School in 1971. His University of Wisconsin degrees include Chemistry (B.S. 1974, Parkside), Materials Engineering (M.S. 1978, Milwaukee), and Metallurgical Engineering (PhD. 1988, Madison.) He moved to Santa Barbara, CA to do post doctoral research on oxysilicates at UCSB. He loved living near the Pacific Ocean, and collected many seashells on his long walks on the beach. He worked as a metallurgical engineer before moving to Tampa, FL, in 2008 to help look after his mother. Ken was an avid gardener of fruit, flowers, and vegetables all his life. In his youth he helped with the family pear, apple, cherry, and peach orchard. In Florida he successfully switched to tropical fruits and grew bananas, pineapples, loquats, papaya, oranges, and grapefruit in his mother's yard. Ken is dearly missed by his mother, his siblings Marcia (James) Colsmith, Phyllis Adrian, Dennis, Robert, and Charlene Vlach, and many other friends and relatives. Ken was cremated in Florida. A memorial may be planned later this summer in Wisconsin.