Obituary of Kennett Arthur Bode

Kennett Arthur “Ken” Bode was born on August 17, 1924 in St. Louis, MO to John and Marion (Link) Bode. Ken passed away at his home on Sunday, January 8, 2017 at the age of 92. He was a retired architect mainly working in commercial design.Kennett Arthur Bode served honorably as a signalman in the Navy in WWII (Pacific theatre). After the war he attended Washington University (St. Louis) and graduated from the architecture program. He began his architecture career in Springfield Missouri, but by late 1950 had moved to Tulsa. He worked for Joseph Koberling, AIA for nearly forty years and was the principal project architectural team leader on the Tulsa Public Library (that is part of the Civic Center complex, Nathan Hale High School, the Tulsa Osteopathic Hospital (now OSU Medical Center in Tulsa), the Blue Cross Blue Shield office tower (that is now part of the downtown Tulsa Junior College), major additions to St. John's Hospital among other commissions. As one of the founding members of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Sand Springs, he designed their church building. He was a long time member (since 1971) and an officer of Construction Specifications Institute in Tulsa. In 1990, when Koberling closed his firm, Ken went to work for the City of Tulsa as a building inspector then plan reviewer for a decade. He was preceded in death by his wife, Nancy Ruth (Ellis) Bode in 2001 and a daughter, Cheryl Powell in 2006. Also was preceded in death by a sister, Marion Bode. Ken is survived by his daughter, Karen Bode Baxter of St. Louis, MO; 2 sisters, Virginia Dokos and Dorothy Duncan both of St. Louis, MO and 1 grandson, Arthur Curtis Weldon of Little Rock, AR