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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Leader

Honored by:

Lifelong aviation enthusiast Ken Robert is an aircraft model builder, aviation history buff, private pilot, retired U.S. Government aerospace technology analyst, and long-time National Air and Space Museum docent.
Since building his first plastic model airplane in the mid-1950s, Ken has become an award-winning model builder, senior judge, and National Contest Committee member in the International Plastic Modelers Society's U.S. Branch. Taking a sabbatical from work in 1978, Ken earned his Private Pilot License in a full-time, six-week course of instruction in Lynchburg, Virginia. Following that, he flew for five years before deciding to concentrate on his many other aviation-related activities.
Principal among these activities has been his work as a National Air and Space Museum (NASM) docent. Ken was a member of the initial docent group that began training in January 1976 for NASM's grand opening in July of that year. NASM's overwhelming popularity prompted the museum staff to open the Silver Hill/Paul Garber restoration facility for public tours in January 1977, and Ken was also a member of the initial docent cadre at Garber. He served at both NASM and the Garber Facility for 15 years and continued to lead tours at Garber until the facility closed in March 2003.
Beginning in early 2002, Ken helped prepare materials to train prospective docents for NASM's much-anticipated Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport. He and four other experienced Garber docents, along with members of the museum's Education Department, prepared a training plan and materials. Ken edited the bulk of these training materials and eventually assumed responsibility for preparing new materials as additional aircraft are put on display at the Center. In addition, he designed the Highlights Tour that docents offer to Center visitors.
In 2003, Ken attended classroom training for Udvar-Hazy Center docents as both student and occasional lecturer from May through October. He then mentored some of the inexperienced docents, helping them develop their tour-giving skills in preparation for the Center's opening.
Ken continues to derive deep satisfaction and great pleasure from his long service with the National Air and Space Museum. He is particularly proud to be one of only two NASM docents to have been in the initial docent cadres at each of the Museum's three locations (NASM on the Mall, the Garber Facility, and the Udvar-Hazy Center).