Golf Architect Ken Killian passed away at age 78 after a long bout with cancer. A list of his best courses includes:
Kemper Lakes
Hawthorn Woods, IL
Eagle Creek Golf Course
Findley, IL
Crickentree Golf Course
Blythwood, SC
Valle Grande
Albuquerque, NM
arrowhead Golf Course
Nekoosa, WI
Golf designer Jeff Brauer was good enough to permit me to reprint a memorial piece he wrote at GolfClubAtlas.com here, so that more than just architecture fans could learn about the life of his dear friend and mentor, so thanks Jeff and Ran Morrissett for sharing this.
From Jeff:
“It is with regret that I pass on the news that my mentor Ken Killian passed away on Sept. 20, at age 78, losing a bout with cancer. I was saddened, having last seen him two years ago at an ASGCA event at Medinah, and seeing him in relatively good spirits and looking well. So far, there are no obituaries, no industry press releases, and no tributes. To me, that is a shame, since he had so much influence on me, and without golfers knowing much about it, a lot of influence on their enjoyment of the game.
Ken (and his former partner Dick Nugent) was as good a mentor as there could have been. Professionally, he was as influential to me as my own father was personally. It’s a tribute to him that 32 years after starting to work with him, I still find myself quoting or paraphrasing things he said to me to clients, employees and others. I also draw plans, think design, and run the office in ways very similar to the old Killian and Nugent days. Even as I try to change my style to keep fresh, I find that after much thought, the design lessons they taught me still apply.
Ken often said that doing one green at club for a modest price probably did more for golf than building a high end tournament course and I keep that with me until this day. To him, there were no “bad”, “too small”, or “underfunded” golf design projects. There were only opportunities to make golfers happier. When I was assigned the Lake Arrowhead project in Nekoosa, WI, while Bob Lohmann got the “better” George Dunne project, with its higher budget, I was grousing about it a bit. Ken asked me “What’s stopping you from making it a great project?” It’s true – a good design is not necessarily money dependent, its designer dependent.
I spent six years at Killian and Nugent, and one year with Ken before going on my own, with his blessing (provided I move far, far away, partially explaining why I am a Texan) I have many fond memories of the work environment and “moments” that occurred. I paired up with Ken more often for projects than with Dick and I was working with Ken on projects at the time of the split, which is why I ended up with him for a year. I think Ken did a little bit better job of putting up with my constant flow of “design ideas” than Dick did! In that partnership, I viewed Ken as slightly more artistic, and Dick as slightly more practical.
Ken had his foibles, of course. So did his cars, (always Cadillac’s) which had tendencies to catch on fire. It happened three times that I know of. I was with him once when smoke started pouring out of the engine compartment. He pulled into a gas station (they actually had service bays back in those days) which was a natural reaction for him, but as he turned in, they were waving us off like a we were making a bad approach on a carrier landing, wanting nothing to do with his burning car near their gas pumps!
Ken was always fun (he still skied, golfed, horseback rode, etc. when many would be slowing down) He had a bad back (from skiing, I think) and we once played golf at Innisbrook, with him wearing a brace. He hit one in the water, and then repeatedly dropped and tried the shot again. The hook on his back brace caught in his shirt, and by the time he finally hit the green, his shirt was in shreds!
At times, that flexibility would border on indecisiveness. When we were working for Jim Colbert in Las Vegas, mild mannered Ken came home with a tooth out. He brought an article in the Las Vegas paper about a fight started when an “amateurish” blackjack player slowly made the decision to draw a card, even though he sat at 18. That angered another player (more that he drew with an 18, going over 21 and costing him a good card), starting a fight. Pointing at the article, Ken said, “Yeah that was me!”
Another lasting memory as I put on a few pounds a year was that Ken could eat anything he wanted, and stayed thin his whole life!
I wish Ken had lived longer and even happier, and achieved a bit more success than he did. After his divorce, he found Gita, and they always acted like teenagers in love. However, that forced him to split his life and career between LA and Chicago for personal reasons. I know he was as devoted to his kids and mother when she was alive as he was to Gita, but pursuing both markets for personal reasons only diluted his marketing efforts. And when Gita died, he maintained his generally upbeat personality, telling me at Medinah that he had 7 girlfriends – one for dancing, one for horseback riding, one for golf, etc. Classic Ken!”
Thanks Jeff. We sorrow for your loss, and for the loss to the golf world.
