I have not heard of Ken for some considerable time so whilst sad to hear of his passing I am glad to learn that he enjoyed a long and happy life.
I was lucky enough to report directly to Ken during my early years with Bristow. He was one of the characters that made the Company so rewarding and such fun to work for. I was on a traveling contract and he was running the European and Middle East desks. He sent me off on a number of ferry flights to deliver 212s and carry out pilot training prior to them entering service on new contracts. If there was ever a problem I knew that I could contact Ken and would receive a quick and sensible solution delivered with great good humour.
On one occasion we were ferrying the 212 that subsequently became G-BALZ back from Spain. We had the aircraft on a short term lease from BEAS and there was a penalty clause to be invoked should we deliver the aircraft back late. Needless to say the contract over ran and we were struggling to get back on time. It was a very cold and foggy January and just north of Amiens we gave up the unequal battle against a lowering cloudbase and landed the aircraft in a small factory yard. We were picked up by the local gendarmes and so I made my report to Ken from the local slammer. He instructed me to get back as soon as I deemed it safe to continue but meanwhile "Go and find a good dinner and bottle of wine".
I always obeyed instructions.