April 28, 2010 | On March 27, longtime EOL
employee Ken Harris passed away unexpectedly at his home due to a heart attack.

Ken on vacation
in New Zealand, wearing his NCAR shirt and Left Hand Brewing Company cap. In
his hand is a dog toy that says, "Dog Beer."

Ken, a machinist by trade,
began working in NCAR’s Machine Shop in 1994, when he applied for the job at
the suggestion of his wife, Teresa Harris (NESL/MMM). He enjoyed getting to work with
a variety of people across NCAR and UCAR, as well as at organizations such as
CU/LASP, NASA, NOAA, and others. Ken especially found fulfillment in building one-of-a-kind
prototype instruments. He also liked learning about the science behind the field
projects he contributed to, many of which were international in scope.

Senior scientist Charlie
Knight (NESL/MMM) recalls that Ken helped him with an experiment to demonstrate
how water, when freezing in a confined space, will build up pressure and
squeeze ice out of an opening “just like toothpaste out of a toothpaste tube.”
Using a steel pipe with end caps and a slot milled in one end by Ken, they
successfully demonstrated this in the lab.

“Ken was very interested
in the experiment and the mechanical challenges,” Charlie says. “For a person
like me he was an ideal colleague, because I usually know what I want to do but
don’t know how to do it. NCAR is bound to miss his attitude of helpfulness,
friendliness, and interest in research.”

Jean Hancock, who heads
Transportation Services for SaSS, says that Ken would help her with minor
repairs and maintenance on the UCAR shuttles. “People
would ask him for advice on home repairs or broken parts,” Jean recalls. “He
had tons of experience and could usually walk you through a repair, or he would
take a look at a broken part and say, ‘Let me see what I can do.’ Then, soon
after, he would reappear with the part in hand, fixed and ready to go.”

Jean noticed that Ken had
a special place in his heart for all things short and
furry, and occasionally the feathered variety as well. “He once rigged a giant
red gas container to the high bay door [on the east side of FL1] to coax a
confused hummingbird out,” she says. “I will always remember Ken’s kindness,
generosity, and humor.”

To friends, Ken was known
as “Mr. Fix It,” a tribute to his ability to fix just about anything and his
knack for taking things apart and putting them back together.  Teresa tells a story about a wedding
gift that the two received after they married in 1976. One of Ken’s co-workers
had built them a simple digital clock, long before digital technology was
widespread. Ken immediately told Teresa that he was going to take the clock
apart to show her how it worked, despite her discouragement. When he opened it
up, he found a note inside that said, “I knew you couldn’t resist.” Teresa says that she knew then that Ken would always want to take things apart.

Ken served in the U.S.
Army’s 101^st Airborne Division during the Vietnam War and was a
lifetime member of VFW Post 2601 in Longmont. He belonged to Bethlehem Lutheran
Church in Longmont. He loved to travel, making many friends along the way, and
also enjoyed scuba diving, camping, and restoring coin collectables. He made
wine and smoked a variety of meats, sharing them with others.

Ken and Teresa volunteered
every year at the Longmont Humane Society’s annual dog washes. Ken prepared the
bratwursts using the Sheboygan Method, pre-cooking them in a mix of Left Hand
Brewing Company beer and sweet onions, then grilling them for customers whose
dogs were being bathed. Over the years, Ken and Teresa adopted several
neighborhood stray cats and found homes for others.

Donations in Ken’s name
can be made to the Longmont Humane
Society.

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