Robert Kenney

1922 – 2012

Robert (Bob) Warner Kenney was born on November 9, 1922, in Portland, Oregon, to Pearle Williamson Kenney and Roy Cleon Kenney. Roy was an electrical engineer and founded Kenney Electric Company; the family home was at N.E. 52nd and Stanton. Bob was born in Wilcox Hospital, today the maternity center on the Good Samaritan Hospital campus in Northwest Portland.

Bob attended Rose City Park Elementary School and Grant High School, graduating in January of 1941. He began his studies in physics at the California Institute of Technology, but his education there was interrupted by America’s entry into World War II. He was sent by the Navy to UCLA, where he obtained a degree in meteorology in October of 1944.

Upon graduation, he was stationed at Adak in the Aleutian Islands as a meteorologist. He held the rank of Lieutenant J.G. at the time of his retirement from the Navy. He then returned to Cal Tech, completing his undergraduate degree in physics in June of 1947.

Bob entered graduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley and obtained his Ph.D. in physics in June of 1952. During that time he performed research at Los Alamos Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

He spent his career at U.C. Berkeley performing research in high-energy nuclear physics at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. There, he was head of the Kenney-Helmholtz Research Group. He also was involved in high-energy particle collision research while visiting the Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, near Chicago, and the Stanford Linear Accelerator. His work led to the publication of numerous research articles, the support and education of many graduate students, and the advancement of our understanding of nuclear physics. He retired in 1995, and became Senior Scientist Emeritus, maintaining an office at U.C. Berkeley for most of an additional decade.

While he was completing his Ph.D. he met biochemistry student Alice Jean Irish at the International House on the Berkeley campus. They married on June 2, 1950, in Berkeley, and made their home in Walnut Creek, and eventually in Orinda, California. Daughters Jane and Wanda were born in 1954 and 1959, respectively.

Robert’s leisure time was occupied with many things – including Ham radio (W6BEW), in which he became involved at the age of 13, continuing throughout his life. He was a member of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) for over 60 years.

He also pursued amateur photography, including developing his own film in the bathroom; he enjoyed piloting small Cessna airplanes, and was the longtime treasurer of The 184th Flying Club out of Buchanan Field in Concord; he was an amateur astronomer, with professional-grade telescopes; he was treasurer and member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Lighthouse Society; and he was also a restorer and docent for the “Lightship LV605 Relief”, docked at Jack London Square in Oakland.

His daughters remember having to stop at every lighthouse between San Francisco and Portland, while driving north for the annual summer vacation at Cannon Beach, Oregon. Bob was active in his later years in the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum – most recently assisting with the recording of the oral histories of the community, as well as establishing the endowment for the expansion of The Center.

He was also a train enthusiast, a boomerang maker, and a box-kite flyer. His daughters report fond memories of Cannon Beach vacations, when they had to duck to avoid his boomerangs, and needing to empty many individual serving boxes of cereal so he could attach them to the kite strings and have them sail up to the kites. He remained a tinkerer all his life, and at his death had a drill press just outside his bedroom.

He survived, unscathed, a total cardiac arrest in the Portland Airport in 2004, due to the remarkable coincidence of a group of paramedics practicing with a defibrillator under the supervision of a Providence heart surgeon only a few steps away at that moment. His revival and recovery was cited, the following year, when one of the paramedics involved received an award for the “Oregon Rescue of the Year”.

Robert was diagnosed with terminal cancer in Berkeley in March, and he died on April 14 with his daughters present.

He was predeceased by his wife Alice on February 25, 2006, and is survived by his daughters Jane Kenney-Norberg (Eric) of Portland, and Wanda Kenney Crook (Rick) of Ramona, California.

Contributions may be made, in his memory, to the Oregon Historical Society.