Kenneth Milton Kiel

Kenneth Milton Kiel, 94, died in Royal Oaks Life Care Center on Saturday, January 28, 2006. He was born in Marshall, Minnesota in 1911 and attended Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota where he had scholarships in both vocal and instrumental music. He was the assistant to the Physics Professor and graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics and Accounting. He began his career with Burroughs Adding Machine Company. During the World War II years, he was offered a position at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Silver Spring, Maryland as the Safety Engineer and head of the safety device group on the Proximity Fuze. After the war, he became Product Engineer of timing devices for King Seeley Corporation in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After a 12-year leave of absence from Burroughs, he returned to their home office in Detroit, Michigan. There he held several positions and many years later retired from the Long Beach and Los Angeles, California offices. At that time he was invited to help organize a new mini-computer company named Microdata Corporation in Santa Ana, California. He retired as Vice President of National/International Sales. He and his wife Merle returned to the Phoenix area after his second retirement and purchased a home in Sun City in 1971. Mr. Kiel has received many honors in his field. During World War II he was given the United States Ordinance Development Award and the OSRD Certificate of Merit for his work at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. For each of seven years he received the Legion of Honor Award from Burroughs Corporation as top salesman of the year. He holds four patents in the field of Safety Devices on the Proximity Fuze and seven in the field of timing mechanisms. He was noted as a public speaker on missile guidance and has several articles published in his field. He has been listed in WHO¹S WHO in the WEST, WHO¹S WHO in ELECTRONICS, WHO¹S WHO in BUSINESS and FINANCE as well as LEADING MEN IN THE UNITED STATES. In 1986 he was the recipient of the prestigious Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from Hamline University. Music has long been the favorite of his many talents. While in California, he sang with the Note-ables and was a tenor soloist in his church choir. He was also in many plays and musicals in the Los Alamitos area. In Sun City he was an original member of the drama group and was in many plays. He was also a member of the Sun City Barbershop group as well as in the Sun City Four Quartette and in the Choraliers. His contributions to his community and church have been many and varied. He was a charter member of Faith Presbyterian Church of Sun City, was tenor soloist for nearly 30 years in the choir as well as the many other churches where he had lived. He was an elder and the first treasurer in his church in Sun City. When he retired Mr. Kiel announced that he would now focus on helping people and thus began his third career. The Pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church asked him to assist a lady who needed help with her finances. During the next 30 years he would help nearly 300 people with income taxes, wills, trusts, investments, medical forms and other problems they had. At 90 years of age he was still working full time helping others until his health began failing. He is survived by Merle, his wife of 67 years; his daughter, Sandra Cross and son-in-law, William Cross, of Gilbert, Arizona; his sister, Grace Van Der Heyden of Orlando, Florida; four grandchildren; eight great grandchildren and several nieces and nephews. His keen sense of humor and love for his family and others will be fondly remembered and sadly missed by all. A Memorial Service will be held at Faith Presbyterian Church in the Chapel on Tuesday, February 7,2006 at 2:00 P.M. Contributions to his memory many be sent to Faith Presbyterian Church, 16000 N. Del Webb Boulevard, Sun City, Arizona 85351-1699 and designated for the music department. Visit this person¹s Guest Book at www.dailynews-sun.com.