Roy Kendall
Roy Kendall died 3 September 2003, in Tacoma, Washington.
Roy was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, on 20 November 1919. Although a wealthy aunt wanted to send him to school to be a doctor, he was not told but went instead to Leeds Technical. He became an aeronautical engineer, and to his chagrin, was not able to join up in the second world war because the industry was needed. Instead he spent nights shooting anti-aircraft guns at enemy planes that flew overhead.
In 1957 he emmigrated to Canada to work at Avro. His wife and three children followed shortly after. Again seeking work after the Avro Arrow cancellation, Roy joined Boeing-Vertol, the vertical lift division of Boeing, in Chester, Pennsylvania. As chief flight-test engineer his projects included the Chinook helicopter and the HLH or heavy-lift-helicopter. He was involved in the effort to change the sound of helicopters to prevent them being easy targets in war.
Roy became the Vertol liaison with the military, then later moved out to Washington State to work for Boeing. In Washington he met and married Shelley Cochran.
Roy’s first love was foxhunting, and he had hunted or been a member of many hunt clubs over the years including Radnor, Pickering, Vicmead, and Woodbrook. Some of his favorite horses were Riley, Zorro, Winchester, and Ogden.
Roy Kendall is survived by his wife, Shelley. His sister Betty, and her husband Tony live in Ontario. John, Steven, Deborah, Vivian, and Elizabeth, his children, are scattered around the globe, as are his sister-in-law, nieces, a nephew, and many younger family members.