Alan Kehew

Kehew, Alan E. Alan Everett Kehew was born in Marshall Township, Pennsylvania on September 17, 1947 to Richard Alan (Dick) and Elizabeth Jane (Betty) Ogilvie Kehew. He passed away on October 14, 2022. Al grew up about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh in a rural area on a property that his great grandfather bought years before. Dick and Betty built their house just after Dick returned from his Navy service in World War 2. Al's grandparents David and Jane Ogilvie lived next door. After graduation from North Allegheny Senior High School, Al entered Bucknell University to study engineering. When he realized this was not the career for him, he switched his major to Geology, a field in which he spent the rest of his working life. After he graduated in 1969, he spent the summer in Norway as a field assistant to his undergraduate advisor, sparking a life-long interest in field work and travel. In the fall of 1969, Al started a master's program at Montana State University. His thesis involved mapping geologic hazards in part of the Big Sky Ski area, which was in the planning stages at the time. Because the draft was still in effect, Al enlisted in the Navy, which had a six-months delay program. This gave Al time to finish his thesis, which he handed in just before getting on the plane for boot camp. In the Navy, he trained as a weather observer and spent two years stationed in Iceland and a year and a half at the Brunswick, Maine Naval Air Station. In Iceland, he enjoyed the spectacular geology and taught a geology course for the University of Maryland. In Brunswick, he met Kay Gomez and they got married on a boat cruising in Casco Bay in August of 1974. Alan, Kay and twin daughters Melissa and Michelle left Brunswick and drove across the county to Moscow, Idaho where Al began a PhD program at the University of Idaho. Al began his professional career at the North Dakota Geological Survey in the fall of 1977. There, he mapped glacial deposits and conducted groundwater studies across the state. When a faculty position opened up in 1980, Al moved two floors down in the same building to become an assistant professor in the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering and the family welcomed a third daughter, Elizabeth Ivy in 1984. In 1986, missing his and Kay's family in the east, Al accepted a position in the Geology Department at Western Michigan University, where he remained for the next 34 years, moving from assistant to full professor and department chair from 1997 to 2002. His research continued to focus on hydrogeology and glacial geology. In the last 15 years, he mapped the glacial geology of several counties in Michigan. His research was published in numerous international journals, and he advised approximately 55 master's and PhD students at the two universities. He was elected to fellowship in the Geological Society of America for his research contributions and was awarded the Western Michigan University Distinguished Service Award in 2013. During his career, he wrote 4 editions of one textbook and one edition of another. One of the most rewarding projects in his career was an educational and cultural exchange collaboration with two Egyptian universities funded by the US State Department. This involved 7 trips for Al to Egypt, working on groundwater exploration in the Sinai and Western Desert and groups of Egyptian faculty and graduate students coming to Michigan in the summers for several years. Al also enjoyed trips for conferences and field work to exotic places like northern Sweden and Finland near the Arctic Circle, the Faeroe Islands, Latvia, and Crete. In 2015, Kay and Al divorced but reunited when Al was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma. Al moved to Harpswell, Maine and built a house in Cundy's Harbor in 2019 after retirement and was lovingly cared for by Kay up until his final days. Predeceased by: Dick Kehew (dad) and Betty Kehew (mom) Survived by: Kay (wife), Melissa Barnhart (daughter), Michelle Wentworth (daughter), Elizabeth Prybylo (daughter), Madelyn & Jack Prybylo (grandchildren) and Barb DiDonato (sister). In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the The Alan E. Kehew Endowment for Geosciences at https://wmich.edu/geology/giving.