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KEITH W
.
MCHENRY' JR
1 928-1 994
BY RICHARD C. ALKIRE
. -
KEITH W. MCHENRY, retired senior vice-president of technol-
ogy for Amoco Corporation, died on January 21, 1994, at the
age of sixty-five. Keith, who spent his entire professional ca-
reer with Amoco Company and its affiliates, was a respected
and progressive manager as well as a successful researcher in
the area of catalysis. His research accomplishments included
the development and commercialization of the worId's most
acivancecl residual of! hydroprocessor.
Keith was born in Champaign, Illinois, and raised in West
Allis, Wisconsin. He receiver! his B.S. degree in chemical engi-
neering from the University of Illinois in 1951 and his Ph.D.
in chemical engineering from Princeton University in 1958.
He was most recently a Chicago resident.
Keith joined Amoco in 1955 as an assistant project chemical
engineer in the Research and Development Department at Whit-
ing, Indiana. While in this position, Keith made significant
contributions to Amoco's research in the catalytic cracking and
demetalation of reduced crudest He was promoted to group lead-
er in 1958 and supervised several discoveries, which led to Amoco
patents, some of which dramatically increased the yield of gaso-
line from crude oil. In 1962 Keith became project manager and
was promoted to research associate in 1966. In the early 1960s
Keith led influential research on zeolite cracking catalyst tech-
nology. By 1967 Keith was named director of process research
149
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150
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
and was responsible for all research in catalytic cracking, thermal
processing, and alkylation. Under his leaclership, his group de-
veloped a reduced crude catalytic desulfurization process, which
was the forerunner of a process commercialized by Amoco in the
l980s. In the early 1970s as director of process and analytical
research, Keith manager! the research/manufacturing interface
and rapidly moved process en c! catalyst improvements from the
laboratory to the refinery. Most notably, through his leadership,
Amoco Oil was the first to introduce lead-free regular and premi-
um gasolines nationwide.
In 1974 Keith moved to Amoco's Research and Develop-
ment Department in Naperville, Illinois, first as manager of
process research and one year later as vice-president. During
his fifteen years in this position, Keith oversaw a number of
innovations, including the development of long-lasting syn-
thetic oils for automobiles, the development and successful
operation of proprietary catalyst system and process configu-
ration for upgrading vacuum resiclual oils, en cl clevelopments
that lecl to refinery units for hydroprocessing catalytic crack-
ing feedstocks en c! resid blends.
As a research and development director and technology
executive, Keith was an Arr~oco representative to the Industri-
al Research Institute, Inc. (IRI) for eighteen years, during
which he served on its board for eight years and was president
cluring 1988 and 1989. Before he became president of IRI, he
chaired the institute's University Relations Committee, chaired
the program committee for the institute's fiftieth Anniversary
Meeting, and lecl an advisory group on moving TRI heaclquar-
ters to Washington, D.C.
In 1989 Keith was elected senior vice-president of technolo-
gy for Amoco. In this position he coordinated the research
activities of Amoco and its operating companies and directed
the development of new technologies. Keith had a wide-rang-
ing vision and was involved in helping Amoco move ahead to
explore alternatives for the time when oil would no longer be
its main source of business. In addition, Keith was heavily in-
volved in helping develop lower-pollution fuels, working
particularly with Amoco's waste management subsidiary. Keith
retired from Amoco in April 1993.
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KEITH W. MCHENRY, JR.
151
Keith was elected to the National Academy of Engineering
(NAE) in 1982. Since that time he served on a number of
committees, including the Committee on Membership, the
Industry Panel of the Study on International Cooperation in
Engineering, the Chemical/Petroleum Engineering Peer
Committee, and the Committee on Forces Affecting the U.S.
Academic Engineering Research Enterprise. Keith served on
the National Research Council Commission on Engineering
and Technical Systems (CETS) Committee on Strategic Petro-
leum Reserve and the joint CETS and Commission on Physical
Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications (CPSMA) Commit-
tee on Chemical Engineering Frontiers: Research Needs and
Opportunities. He also chaired the joint CETS and CPSMA
Pane] on Energy and Natural Resources Processing between
1985 and 1988.
Keith was a member of the American Chemical Society, the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the
American Petroleum Institute, and the Catalysis Society, and
he was selected as a fellow to the American Institute of Chem-
ical Engineers. In 1988 Keith received the Award in Chemical
Engineering Practice from the American Institute of Chemi-
cal Engineers for his contributions to the petroleum industry.
Keith always remained visible to engineers outside of Arno-
co, as was evidenced by the numerous invitations he received
as a distinguished lecturer. In 1981 he was the Charles D.
Hurd Lecturer for the Department of Chemistry at Northwest-
ern University; in 1983 he presented the Thiele Lectures in
Chemical Engineering for the Department of Fuels Engineer-
ing at the University of Utah; and in 1987 he was invited as the
Gerster Memorial Lecturer for the Department of Chemical
Engineering at the University of Delaware. Keith was heavily
involved in furthering industrial-academic relations. Not only
was he a frequent speaker on engineering education, but he
served on advisory boards for Princeton University, the Uni-
versity of Delaware, and the University of Illinois at both
Urbana-Champaign and Chicago. Keith championed the Uni-
versity of Chicago School Mathematics Program, which showed
his concern with science and mathematics education down to
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
the elementary level. He also was a driving force in establish-
ing the University of Delaware's Center for Catalytic Science
and Technology, whose graduates are familiarized with indus-
trial goals. Keith was convinced of the need to provide strong
engineering education, and he acted on these convictions. He
wrote, "The future of American industry- and the future of
the nation will clepencI on our success in educating the peo-
ple we must have to develop and implement new technology
in an increasingly technological world."
Keith McHenry had an impact on chemical engineering
from a variety of dimensions. He was an influential research-
er, a respected leacler of Amoco Oil, and an effective advocate
of close industry-university relations. Keith also had an impact
on people, and he will be remembered with respect as a
straightforwarcl, honest person who cared cleeply for family,
friencls, and colleagues.
.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
chemical engineers
