Page 62 RAIN Spring 1986 Eulogy for Ken Kem by Carlotta Collette Ken Kem died on February 13, 1986. His wife and frequent co-author, Barbara, wrote that he died “in a building collapse during a wild storm, the likes of which we've not seen for many years in these parts. He had expressed his doubts about the strucutre's stability, but chose to test its limits as he often did his own.” When I heard about his death, 1 remembered clearly the first time 1 read one of the Kerns' books. The Owner-Built Homestead, perhaps 15 years ago. I suspect my experience with Ken and Barbara's books is similar to that of many other readers. I was inspired to stretch my understanding of what an individual can do in a lifetime. I could build a home and live a very rich life there. For a pre-liberation woman, this was a remarkable challenge. Ken did that with his books and, though 1 never had the pleasure of meeting him. I'm assured he did it with his life, too. To get a more intimate perspective on his life, I called his friend Otis Mullan (co-author with Ken of The Earth-Sheltered Owner-Built Home). Otis generously shared some of his recollections and his own first thoughts on the death of his friend. “Ken died in as mighty and complex a way as he lived. A building of his own design, built by his own hands, fell in on him in the night as he was sleeping, crushing him with better than 16 tons of clay. “The building that crushed Ken was a clay and bamboo dome. The superstructure was a minimal system of concrete arches, meeting at the locus of a poured-in-place concrete wood stove/solar oven. Heating, cooking, hot water, optional open fire, and structural core—strictly sun and wood—all served by the same unit. The design was as bold and daring as the man himself. And it worked ... almost. “Ken Kem was an experimenter. He invented dozens of building techniques. He was courageous enough to try all of them on himself.” The building that crushed Ken while he slept was such an experiment. It was ■designed for a project in Mexico that Otis and he were gearing up for. They were going to try to help Mexican Indians construct simple, efficient, clay and wood structures. The design was geared toward desert climates. The technique might work in Mexico. But it couldn't endure the heaviest rains Northern California had seen in 100 years. Otis noted that in Persia, 2500 years ago, adobe dome builders were put to death if the homes they built collapsed on their occupants. Ken Kem died by his own hands. Otis believed Ken would have preferred that to hurting any other single human being. Ken was 59 when he died. He left his wife Barbara, his children, his friends, and all of us who never met him, but learned to dream great dreams and develop simple and useful skills because of him, to continue to build, oo RAIN Contributors Last November we gave our subscribers a chance to contribute to RAIN to help us expand our circulation. This was our second annual end-of-year solicitation, and although we didn't do quite as well as we did in 1984, what we got will certainly help us in doing some muchYes, I would like to help support RAIN in its work. I have marked below how I can help. [] Here is a check forfor your promotional budget. [] I am interested in your correspondents network. This means I can send you book reviews and reports from my community, and also help RAIN get more visibility here. NAME ADDRESS needed promotion (now that we've settled down with a new subtitle, clearer focus, new format, and new publishing schedule). Altogether, we received about $1500 from 58 donors, who are listed below. To all who contributed, and all who support us by subscribing and telling your friends and local newsstands about us, RAIN showers you with gratitude. And, of course, for anyone who likes the direction we're headed and would like to help us move forward, your tax-deductible contribution is greatly appreciated and will be put to good use. M.E. Arnold, Jr. Brent Bassford and Karen McQuillan Ben Bishoff Joseph F. Brown Henry Burton James and Maijorie Byme Gilbert B Campbell Chinook Learning Community Janice Christensen Bob and Merrily Coe Lee Cooper Scott Corbett lanto Evans Food Front Coop Glen Friedman Douglas Funkhouser Stanley A. Furman Sharon Glassman Susan Gonzales and David Drom T. L. Goudvis Del Greenfield Mary B. Howarth Michael Jacobs M. Walter Johnson Phil Johnson Doug Kirkpatrick Stuart Krebs Charles Leiden Steve M. Lockwood Robert W. Long Nancy Lutey Kim MacColl Victor Martino David Milholland Leonard and Bonnie Nelson Marshall and Meg Palley Karen R. Pierce Roger Pritchard Ann Read Melvin and Rita Rudman Steve Smith Douglas C. Strain NormTjaden Bob Wallace Jim Winter-Troutwine and 14 donors who preferred to remain anonymous.
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