Kenneth Henry Holko's Obituary
Kenneth Henry Holko, a loving husband, devoted father, beloved grandfather, and pioneering metallurgical engineer, researcher, and inventor whose work advanced aerospace technology, national defense, transportation innovation, and modern orthopedic surgery, passed away peacefully at his home in San Diego, California. He was 80 years old.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1944 to Milan Holko and Stephany Florczyk, Ken grew up in Brooklyn, Ohio, where his early curiosity and determination began to take shape. He was inducted into the Brooklyn High School Hall of Fame in 1993, a testament to the remarkable career that would follow.
Ken attended the University of Cincinnati for two years, where he was a member of the wrestling team, before transferring to The Ohio State University. He graduated in 1967 with a Bachelor of Science in Welding Engineering—an achievement made even more meaningful because it was there that he met the love of his life, Susan. They were married in 1971.
His career began in the 1970s at NASA’s Lewis Research Center (now the Glenn Research Center) in Cleveland, where he specialized in solid state and diffusion welding of advanced aerospace alloys. His early research contributed to NASA’s understanding of high temperature materials and joining techniques essential for next generation propulsion systems.
In 1972, Ken and Susan moved to San Diego, where he began work at Rohr Industries for two years, followed by five years at General Atomics. At General Atomics, he helped develop welding processes for high temperature, gas cooled nuclear reactors, further establishing his reputation as a gifted problem solver in advanced materials engineering.
In the mid-1980s, Ken founded Hitech Metallurgical Company in San Diego, where he led groundbreaking work in high temperature brazing and joining technologies. After 17 successful years, he sold the company and continued consulting until his retirement in 2020. During his career, he was also selected to join IMECA (Independent Metallurgical Engineers of California), an honor reserved for highly respected experts in the field.
Ken’s professional achievements were extensive. He held multiple U.S. patents and authored numerous technical reports for NASA and the American Welding Society. His expertise in diffusion welding—particularly his methods for achieving parent metal strength joints without vacuum furnaces—remains a significant contribution to the field. His metallurgical work in medical devices also played a central role in major licensing and intellectual property cases involving leading medical manufacturers.
Outside of his engineering career, Ken was a gifted jewelry maker who found joy in working with his hands in a more artistic way. His pieces—carefully crafted, often experimental, and always unique—reflected the same precision, creativity, and curiosity that defined his life’s work. He was also an avid tennis player who loved the sport’s blend of strategy, movement, and competition.
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