Born in the oil boom town of Billings, Montana in 1930. Ken Tait passed away peacefully surrounded by loving family in Villa Park on February 14atthe age of 94.
Son of Fred and Isabel Tait, Ken and his sister and three brothers grew up in Billings, his cherished home of early life. With the economic desperation of the Great Depression –and a Scottish father to further emphasize the situation –Ken developed a strong work ethic early on. At eleven years old, he took his first job as a pinsetter at the local bowling alley, where the pinsetters – not the bowling pins themselves - were often the target of drunk bowlers. His career took a less hazardous path, taking on a paper route, responsible for deliveries regardless of pre-dawn sub-zero conditions and deadbeat accounts that came out of his pocket if he didn’t collect. This early work ethic would prove to serve him well throughout life.
Ken was a popular kid, elected class president at Billings High; however, his affable nature did not garner as much success in the boxing ring. Though he had deep love for his hometown, he was always looking beyond the horizon. In his early teens, he and his friends would scrounge together whatever they could and build makeshift motorbikes to go on camping journeys amidst the immense beauty of the Big Sky state.
His innate sense of fearless adventure would drive him forward through life.
Scratching together a college education, he worked summers on a horseback land survey crew in the Big Horn Mountains for weeks on end, mapping the wilderness for the Bureau of Land Management. Then the Korean War happened and Ken, always the patriot, signed up. With his land surveying experience, the Navy assigned him to the Seabees. There, he experienced great adventures in the South Pacific, a world away from his Montana home.
After the war, he resumed his studies toward his civil engineering degree. One weekend while on break, he braved a blizzard to go to the corner drug store to feed his nicotine fixation with a pack of Lucky Strikes. While there, he met the love of his life, Valetta Ahmann. Only she didn’t know it yet. He asked her to marry him 49 times. She said “yes” on the fiftieth. They married one week after his graduation from Montana State University. Their daughter Susan was born nine months and four days after.
To support his young family, he joined Mobil Oil as a field engineer and was soon assigned to Libya to explore that nation’s untapped oil reserves. He was soon leading an international team of over 30 throughout the Sahara Desert for weeks at a time. While there, he developed a love and respect for the nomadic Bedouins, and once saved a young girl’s life by deploying company resources to transport her to a hospital many miles away. Success came to Ken’s team, as they located El Gattar #1, the first producing oil well in Libya.
After moving back to Montana, Ken remained intrigued by the promise and beauty of California from his Navy days, so he moved his family there in 1958. He landed a job with LA County Department of Public Works but found it too bureaucratic, so he joined Standard Oil but found it too corporate, so he founded Tait &Associates in 1964 where he could manage his own destiny. His reignited entrepreneurial spirit flourished. With a laser focus on servicing customer needs, Ken built a company that is going stronger today than ever, helmed by his grandchildren. Along the way, he developed several technologies, founded an environmental company, formed several business ventures, and had a hand in the design of thousands of private and public developments throughout the nation.
The family grew with the addition of Tom, Rich, and Liz and eventually settled in Villa Park. His restless sense of adventure never escaped him, and he purchased a Piper Aztec airplane, where he would fly to Mexico and Montana on fishing excursions, often with his young sons. He eventually crashed it in Fresno (fortunately nobody was seriously injured), and his flying days were over. His next vehicle for adventure was the trawler Good News, which provided many voyages up and down the Pacific Coast. She is still in the family today, as a small part of his tremendous legacy.
Probably not coincidentally, around the time of the plane crash, Ken converted to Roman Catholicism, the faith of his lovingly devout wife Valetta. It is said that the most passionate faith is the faith of the convert, and Ken is a case in point. The sacraments were central to how Ken lived his life, particularly the Eucharist. He truly loved all of humanity as brothers and sisters in Christ and treated them as such. He gave his time and much of his fortune to those in need. Over the years, he has been honored for his charitable works, including 2006 Orange Diocese Man of the Year, induction into the Knights of Malta, Honorary Doctorate from Montana State University, plus laboratory named in his honor at MSU.
When asked late in life what was his greatest pride, he would not hesitate to answer, “my family.” He proved it day in a day out, leading by example and words, giving encouragement when encouragement was needed, discipline when courses needed correcting, advice drawn from a deep well of wisdom, and always providing the resources and security needed to assure his family would thrive in mind, body, and spirit.
When the end was near, he managed the strength to say his final words, “I know God will take care of me. I know God will take care of my family. I know the love of Christ.”
Ken is predeceased by his parents Fred and Isabel Tait, brothers Jerry Tait and Keith Tait and sister Donaleen Geib (nee Tait). He is survived by his wife of 68 years Valetta, brother Thomas (Patrice) Tait, children Susan (Kevin) Welch, Tom (Julie) Tait, Rich (Kathryn) Tait, Liz (Tim) Ericsen, grandchildren Whitney (Adam) DeFrancis, Trevor (Tori) Tait, Matthew (Cali) Welch, Kendall (Aubrey) Brown, Hannah Welch, Colin (Hannah) Tait, Drew (Stephanie) Ericsen, Cole Tait, Eliza Tait, plus thirteen great-grandchildren.
Funeral Mass will be held at 10am, Thursday, February 27 at St. Norbert’s Catholic Church, 300 E. Taft Ave., Orange, California. Reception to follow. All are welcome.