John I. McKenney set a remarkable example of how fulfilling a life can be. Born in 1928 in Hollis, ME he was the son of a carpenter and a schoolteacher and he learned to read before entering the first grade.

He joined the Boy Scouts at age 13 and in 1946 he graduated from High School in a huge class of TEN students!!

John then worked as a construction worker before joining the National Guard where he was a vehicle mechanic. He succeeded in completing a four-year course in Machine Shop practice and Administration.

In 1950 John married Virginia Whitehouse Illingworth and started their family together. John took on a second job at a sawmill where he worked long and hard hours until graduation from Machine Shop school. He won a job as a Journeyman Machinist designing tools when he graduated.

Somehow, he took time out to ski Tuckerman’s Ravine several times each winter.

Over time his family grew to five children: John Jr., David, Jane, Mary and George. His career also expanded with a new job at General Electric, while his rank in the military rose from Lieutenant to Captain, Company Commander, Major, and Battalion Commander.

In his spare time!… he joined the Boy Scouts again as a leader and rose through the ranks to become the Roundtable Commissioner and a member of the district committee in the Schenectady NY district. Scouting led him to mountain climbing and conservation, and his achievements in these areas are especially noteworthy. John appears to

` have climbed every mountain in the Northeastern U.S. over the height of 4,000 feet by the time he was 61 years old.

After 25 years with GE, John joined Kingsbury Machine Tool Company in 1982 and brought all of his enthusiasm and organizational skills to his new job, to the local Boy Scout organization, as well as to the local SME chapter in Keene. John started his career with the SME as newsletter editor and quickly rose to Chairman of the local chapter, then secretary and treasurer of the New England Region 5. He continued teaching, tutoring, mentoring and striving throughout his life. Everything that John accomplished in his life he started with a small, but bold step and was never content to slow the pace, but rather to keep conquering new peaks throughout his life.

After John’s death in 1995, his wife, Virginia, and his family joined with the SME to offer a scholarship in his name for promising students going into the engineering field.