Kenneth R. Dunipace

Kenneth R. Dunipace, age 95, of Indianapolis, Indiana, passed away peacefully in the presence of family members at St. Vincent Hospital on November 21, 2024. Ken was born in Bowling Green, Ohio, on September 26, 1929, to Donald and Eunice (Davis) Dunipace. He grew up in Perrysburg, Ohio where he graduated from high school in 1947 and went on to earn a Degree in Elementary Education from Ohio State University. Following college graduation, Ken served in the U.S. Navy, from 1951 to1953, during the Korean War. Returning to MIT after that, Ken earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering which brought him his initial professional position working for MIT on the Navy’s Polaris Missile Guidance System at Cape Canaveral, Florida. During his tenure in Florida, Ken earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of Florida and assisted in the design of the guidance system for NASA’s Apollo Lunar Program. In 1966, Ken’s family moved to Clemson, South Carolina, where Ken obtained his PH.D. allowing him to continue the remainder of his professional career in college teaching.

During his time at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Ken met his wife, Ann (Jones), and they married in Boston, Massachusetts in March of 1963. Their two children, daughter Judith (1964) and son Steve (1966), were both born in Florida. During the 61 years of their marriage Ken and Ann also lived in Rolla, Missouri, where Ken began his teaching career at the Missouri School of Mines and in Washington, D.C., where Ken was “on loan” to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation before moving permanently to Indianapolis where he served as Chairman of the Electrical Engineer Department at IUPUI. Ken developed and mentored a hands-on Senior Design Course, and in 1997 was recipient of the Frank E. Burley Distinguished Professor Award

Ken’s life included a variety of “projects” and hobbies. Working on his grandfather’s farm during his teenage years left him with a life-long love for gardening. For most of his adult life he drove a sports car and, in Missouri, founded a sports car club and participated in cross-country rallies. Also, his fondness for aircraft and aviation led him to obtain his private pilot license on his 60th birthday. But Ken’s greatest love was sailing. In 1999 he bought a 28-foot sailboat in Holland, Michigan and sailed it to Friendship, Maine, where, for the next 25 years, he enjoyed the winds and waves by the family’s summer home on Muscongus Bay.

Ken was predeceased by his parents, his infant twin brother (Alva), and his sister and brother-in-law, Virginia and Hilary Cook of Markleeville CA. Surviving to cherish his memory are his wife, Ann; his daughter, Judith Dunipace of Friendship Maine; his son and daughter-in-law, Steve and Dee Dunipace of Brownsburg, Indiana; and three cherished grandchildren: Sam (wife Arielle), Abbie Dunipace and Tatiana Dunipace.

Set your course by the stars,

Not by the lights of every passing ship.

Omar N. Bradley