Kenneth Nettleton Birkett ’39 died on June 20, 2005, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Born on December 4, 1916, in Wollaston, MA, he prepared for college at Needham (MA) High School and became a member of Chi Psi Fraternity at Bowdoin. Following his graduation in 1939, he worked for several years in a number of positions. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces from 1942 to 1946, attaining the rank of captain. After the war he was a statistician with George B. Hanlow Company in Boston for two years and then spent seven years as an accountant with the Boston and Maine Railroad. From 1955 to 1967, he was secretary to the president of the Norfolk County Trust Company in Brookline, MA, and from 1960 on was also a teacher with Bryant and Stratton Junior College in Boston. From 1969 until 1978, he was a teacher in the Dedham (MA) public school system. In addition, he was a teacher at the Boston Center for adult education and with the Veterans Administration in Boston for some years. He retired in 1978. He was married in 1943 to Margaret Reed, who died in 1994, and is survived by a daughter, Barbara B. Rowe of Fairfield, CT; three sons, Kenneth H. Birkett, Jr. of Lititz, PA, Robert E. Birkett of Concord, MA, and Arthur H. Birkett of Somerville, MA; a brother, Marshall Birkett of New London, NH; a sister, Jeanette Bonnett of Fairfield, CT, and six grandchildren.