Kenneth Allen Poehls

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution announces with great sorrow the death of former Joint Program Student Kenneth Allen Poehls on November 20, 2013 from aggressive brain tumors.  He was 64.

Born in Altadena, California, in May 1949, Ken was the eldest of seven children of Irvin and Shirley Poehls, both former teachers in the San Fernando Valley.

Ken liked to say he won a Nobel Prize in Science – from a Nobel Jr. High Science Fair. After graduating from UCLA, he earned a Ph.D. in marine geophysics from the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in 1975. As an oceanographer, he traveled the world’s oceans, including several years during First Light on the Arctic Ocean. After a successful career as a scientist and manager at Dynamics Technology, Pacific Sierra Research, Veridian, General Dynamics, and Applied Signal Technology, he turned his love of science to writing children’s science fiction novels which may someday be published.

Ken is survived by Aileen, his wife of 39 years; his daughter Diane (Dan) Adams; two grandchildren; his siblings Karen (Duane) Bygum, Christine Blake, Bob (Barb) Poehls, Jan (Clay) Porlier, Karl (Susan) Poehls, Lisa (Terry) Conrad; and his many nephews and nieces.

Ken would like any memorial donations to support education in the sciences through the Hollister Fellowship fund at www.whoi.edu . He was a brilliant, innovative curmudgeon with a dry sense of humor.

Information for the obituary is from Gates, Kingsley & Gates Smith Salsbury Funeral Home