Warren Milford Ketcham, age 91, passed away on March 9, 2010, after
a short illness, in Waitsfield, Vermont. He is survived by his wife of
72 years, Mae; six children: Pat (George), Warren (Pat), Kenneth,
Phillip, Priscilla (Reza), and Joy. He is also survived by nine
grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Warren was born in Amityville, NY, on March 25, 1918, the only child of
Ethyl and Milford Ketcham. His father and grandfather were builders and
carpenters and this is where he learned his excellent skills of
building and carpentry. On September 9, 1938, he married Mae Ada
Watling and from this marriage begot three boys and three girls,
Patricia, Warren, Kenneth, Priscilla, Philip, and Joy.
In 1937, Warren started working on tugboats in New York Harbor as a
carpenter, deckhand and cook, where he remained for three years. At the
beginning of WWII, he worked at Republic Aviation where he managed
inspections for the Thunderbolt P-47 pursuit planes. He loved the
water, so when a salvage tug job became available, he left Republic
Aviation to work on a tugboat that retrieved ships that had been sunk
by the German U-boats. During the last year and a half of WWII, he was
a Merchant Marine seaman, where he was part of several ship convoys
across the Atlantic bringing supplies to the troops until V-J Day.
After the war, he began his own construction business, which included
the construction of the Brooklyn Dodger Stadium in Vero Beach, Florida.
In June of 1952, the Ketcham clan moved from Amityville, New York, to
Waitsfield, Vermont, and bought, for the princely sum of $5,200, the
100-acre farm on Route 100, where Warren resided until his death.
For the first 20 years in Vermont, Warren supported his family by using
his considerable skill in carpentry to repair and build houses in
Waitsfield and the surrounding areas, culminating in his construction
of the Bundy Art Gallery. About 1966, Warren became interested in
flying airplanes and this led to his construction and development of
the Warren Airport, where Mae ran the snack bar. In 1980, he was asked
to run the Sugarbush Golf Course and for a number of years was involved
in making major improvements to the course. Due to his service there he
was given a lifetime free membership to play on the course, which,
unfortunately, did not help his golf game.
In 1990, Warren had major heart bypass surgery, and this began a
gradual slowdown in his activities and deterioration in his health.
However, until the last year of his life, he was fairly active in
cutting down trees in the forest, chopping wood, doing small carpentry
projects and mowing the dandelion-patched lawn around his home and the
grass airplane runway in the long field on the west side of Route 100.
Among other honors and achievements, Warren was chairman of the Harwood
School Board from 1978 to 1985, was on the board of directors for the
Waitsfield Chittenden Bank from 1980 to 1994, was a member of the Odd
Fellows, was a member of the Waitsfield Cemetery Commission and was the
topless wing walker in 1983 at the Warren Airport.
Funeral services will be held from the Waitsfield United Church of
Christ on Saturday, March 13, 2010, at 10 a.m. Friends may call at the
Waitsfield United Church of Christ on Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. Burial
will take place this spring in the Waitsfield Common Cemetery. In lieu
of flowers, the family requests that donations may be made to the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, c/o Robert Danaher, 300 Old County
Road, Waitsfield, VT 05673, or the Mad River Valley Ambulance Service,
P.O. Box 305, Waitsfield, VT 05673. To send online condolences please
visit www.perkinsparker.com. Assisting the family is the Perkins-Parker
Funeral Home in Waterbury.
