ROBERT CARL KANY

KANY, ROBERT CARL, 92, died of natural causes on July 22. He was born June 13, 1918, in Xenia, Ohio, the youngest of the three sons of Arthur Schneider Kany and Mabel Ledbetter Kany. He grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and graduated from Purdue University in 1940 with a degree in civil engineering. During World War II he was involved in the design and production of LST landing craft in Pittsburgh, and thereafter lived in Indianapolis before moving to Orlando in 1951.

He was married to Jean Carrel Kany, who died in 1956, to Alice Weaver Kany, who died in 1978, and to Mary Jane Yandre Kany, who survives him. He is also survived by four children, Steven Kany of Short Hills, New Jersey; Karen King of Frenchtown, New Jersey; Thomas Kany of Clinton, Miss.; and Alice Heinsohn of Signal Mountain, Tenn.; 16 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and two stepchildren, Stanley Yandre of Merritt Island, and Ellen Frisbee of Melbourne, Florida.

Bob Kany was a member of Park Lake Presbyterian Church since 1951 and was an elder and teacher in the church for many years. He was a longtime member of the Toastmasters' Club, winning numerous awards for prepared, impromptu, and humorous speeches. Professionally, he was the unofficial dean of the Central Florida civil engineering profession and was regularly in his office at Engineering First Class, Inc., until declining health finally persuaded him to retire in May 2010, at 91.

Bob's interests were wide-ranging. He was a lifelong hiker and explorer, beginning as a Boy Scout in Ohio and continuing with his hobby of seeking abandoned gold mines in the Southwest, while appreciating desert and mountain terrain even when the searches produced no gold. He was also an avid reader of histories of the American West and the Spanish Conquistadores and of guides to identifying edible mushrooms.

He was a loving and nurturing father and grandfather, whose examples of integrity, peaceableness, kindness, patience, rationality, humor, and professional skill and competence were an inspiration to, and will be remembered by, all who knew him.

Funeral services will be at Park Lake Presbyterian Church at 2:00 p.m. on July 24, with interment at Glen Haven Memorial Park on
July 26.