Kenton D. Juhlin

1947 - 2022

A memorial service will be held on Friday, April 15th at Groesbeck Estate at the Cincinnati Nature Center, 3-6pm. Follow the link below for more information of this event.Kenton was a beloved husband, father, brother, uncle, and most recently, grandfather, who passed away in his home on April 7, 2022 at the age of 74. He is survived by Ann, his wife of 49 years, daughters Ellen Juhlin (Justin Oliphant) and Carol (Joseph) Feaga, granddaughter Mackenzie Feaga, and his brother Doug (Phyllis) Juhlin. He is predeceased by his parents Harold and Lenora (Gerdes) Juhlin, sisters Marilyn Stout and Carmen Harris, and brothers Harold, Brooks, and Maurice Juhlin. Kenton is deeply missed by his family, friends, and colleagues.This website will continue to be updated throughout the week with more stories about his life. Feel free to check back in.

• Memorial Service Info

• Life
• Stories
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Life

Kenton was born on Oct 1, 1947, in Wood River, Illinois. Even from a young age he was known for his wry humor and practical jokes. He graduated from East Alton High School in 1965, and later from University of Illinois with a B.S. in 1969. He attended MIT for graduate studies in Statistics, where he also hosted a jazz radio show. He returned to University of Illinois and received his Ph.D in Statistics in 1985. Later, he was one of the first two people to receive the university’s Horace W. Norton Prize in Statistics.

Kenton and Ann met in Boston in 1971 while he was at MIT. After they married in 1972, they decided to move back to Illinois. Their daughter Ellen was born in 1982, followed by Carol in 1985.Over time, the family moved from East Alton, IL, to Indianapolis, IN, then to Norwich, NY, and finally Milford, OH. Kenton worked at Walker Research while in Indianapolis, and then went to work at Procter & Gamble in Norwich and Cincinnati.

Before his retirement in 2012, Kenton was a Principal Scientist and statistician at Procter & Gamble and worked on applications of genomics technology to consumer products. At P&G he developed important, widely used methods for assessing data quality. Kenton was highly regarded by his colleagues for his integrity, professionalism, intelligence, and creativity. He also was a valued, fun-loving friend who will be missed.

Throughout his life, Kenton loved hiking and being in nature. He had a fondness for cats and wildlife, and had recently become a certified naturalist, after having spent many hours volunteering at the Cincinnati Nature Center. He loved music, especially jazz and R&B, and he had learned to play saxophone, piano, guitar, and bass guitar. The latest bass guitar pieces he had worked on were Orion by Metallica (the bass solo), Cult Of Personality by Living Colour, and Roundabout by Yes. He was also a skilled woodworker, and built many pieces of furniture for his family, including beautiful matching jewelry boxes and writing desks for his daughters, bookshelves, cutting boards, a pizza peel, and many M&M dispensers for his extended family.

Kenton loved his family dearly, taking much pride in his daughter’s accomplishments, and relishing his role recently as grandfather to Carol’s daughter Mackenzie, sharing his love of games, music, and being goofy.

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Stories

We’d love to hear any stories you might have about Kenton, whether silly or serious. Send them to us and we'll add them to our collection.

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We were on a family hiking trip in Indiana and stopped in the park’s nature center, where they had a big window looking out on a bunch of birdfeeders, and tons of birds including hummingbirds. Kenton got into a conversation with a couple who was there, they had never seen a hummingbird before, and he was telling them about how to make hummingbird food: “Just combine 1 part sugar with 4 parts water.” They said: “Oh ok… how much is a part?”~ Story from Ellen

Kenton was a fierce competitor. A “friendly” game of badminton would quickly escalate with a strong overhand spike and shuttlecock wizzing by your ear.~ Story from JoeBoy do I remember the Indian Ball games between the Juhlin brothers and my cousin and I… Between my dad, Doug, Uncle Bub, Kenton, Brooks and cousin Bobby.. Sometimes we would let Uncle Chuck join in 😀. The competitiveness was on display from the first pitch! Uncle Kenton.. from your weird way you used to wrap our Christmas presents, to your awesome boomerangs.. to our games of Risk.. to the tricks you used to do to keep everyone entertained!! Let’s not forget horseshoes, where you never let anyone else win. We lost my father last September and you way too soon after.Story from Jeff J

This was on another family hiking trip to Mt. Mitchell. We had all hiked out maybe two miles to a place where we stopped for lunch. Dad and I were going to continue along the path that would take us down the mountain into a campground, while my mom & Carol went back to the parking lot and drove down to meet us. So.. we hiked another mile or so, but we couldn’t find the turnoff that would take us to the campground. We went back and forth in the area marked on the map where it was supposed to be, with no luck. By this time the sun was starting to go down, and we decided to hike back to the parking lot and try to find a ride down to the campground. This was before cell phones, so we didn’t have a way to communicate. Fortunately there was a park staff member at the parking lot who had access to a phone line, and they were able to call down to the campground, telling the person on the other end to try to find mom & Carol to let them know. It was full on dark at this point, and they very kindly gave us a ride down the mountain, where we had to search the dark campground for a bit to find them, but we were eventually reunited, to much rejoicing.~ Story from Ellen

One of the things that Kenton is most remembered for, amongst the kids growing up in our family, is his ability to remove his finger from his hand! It was a great illusion where he really made it seem like a painful struggle, but you could clearly see the gap between the top of the finger and his knuckle (hidden by his other hand). Grace said “We thought he was pure magic! We'd make him do it over and over again.” All the kids loved it.~ Story from EllenI remember driving somewhere (your family was always so generous including us) and your dad told us he could make the rain stop, when he clapped his hands. Going under the overpass never occurred to me. I was spellbound!Story from Catherine F.

Kenton had the highest expectations for his family, particularly his daughters. Before meeting Kenton I’d never been asked how many patents I held or number of times I had been published with the expectation of an answer being more than zero. He also had a big heart and welcomed me to the family anyway.~ Story from Joe

The Pope was visiting Santiago (Chile) at the same time Kenton was visiting. Given an exclusive chance for a one on one meet and greet, he of course accepted; which is why the Pope knows everything about topology.~ Story from Anonymous

My dad made a scary, cartoony mask out of a milk jug and an old Tshirt that was a fixture in his study for as long as I can remember. Ellen had a sleepover party for her 12th birthday, it was very late, and all her friends were in our living room next to the large glass doors chatting away. My dad got out the mask and I saw him sneak out the front door. A few minutes later, screams erupted from the flock of pre-teens as he loomed into view out of the dark, wielding a face-illuminating flashlight for added effect. I think my dad is still laughing.~ Story from Carol

Everything I know about Jazz, Blues, and Rhythm and Blues comes from him. I am still daily listening to music that comes from his influence on me. If it weren't for him I think I would probably still be listening to Paul Revere and the Raiders.~Story from Dan P.

Kenton, Ann, Carol, and Joe were at an AirBnB in Utah and found a Star Wars Activity Book. Inside someone had previously added a poorly-drawn picture of Luke Skywalker. Carol took a photo and uploaded it to the Google Arts & Culture app, which returned the image shown here. Kenton laughed for a long time.~ Story by Carol

Kenton had an uncanny ability to find 4-leaf clovers. It seemed like whenever there was clover nearby, he would just suddenly reach down and pluck one. In 2015, we took a family Backroads trip to Bhutan. The first day we arrived in the country, we were doing our first group hike up a hill to a local temple, getting to know our three guides as well as the other folks on the trip. As we’re walking along a narrow dirt path on a hillside, Kenton suddenly exclaimed, “I found a 4-leaf clover!” and reached down to pick it up. The rest of the group were amazed, and kept asking him for the rest of the week if he’d found any more.~ Story from Ellen

I remember one Easter we spent with Uncle Kenton and Aunt Ann in Champaign, IL. The Easter Bunny didn’t come to their house. Instead it was the Easter Piggy!!!~ Story from Kelly F

I have many memories of Uncle Kenton from our summer cousin exchanges growing up all the way until my Masters graduation weekend. A memory that I think of more often than I ever thought I would is related to my job as a Naturalist. One day when I was a kid spending a week in Norwich with my cousins, Uncle Kenton taught us how to make art with a spider web. He put a piece of construction paper behind an abandoned web and then lightly sprayed it with spray paint. It left the beautiful design of the web on the paper. I was mesmerized. I think about this memory whenever I ponder which crafts to make with children at work.~ Story from Liana V

Uncle Kenton continued to be a shiny star in my life including my Masters graduation weekend in Ohio in 2014. I graduated from Miami University of Ohio, not terribly far from Cincinnati but still a good drive. Aunt Ann and Uncle Kenton attended every event of my graduation weekend including a speech I gave to my graduation peers. I was so nervous about it but I clearly recall Uncle Kenton coming up to me after the speech to give me a heartfelt congratulations and repeatedly tell me how well I did. I was beaming. There was a lot to love about Uncle Kenton but his humor is what I loved most of all. Deadpan, dry, and completely hysterical. He was an incredible addition to our family and I will miss him very much.~ Story from Liana V

My dad had a very frugal side to him, and once said ordering a cocktail at a bar was wasting money, so I wasn’t sure how he would handle wine tasting in Napa Valley when we visited for a wedding. We arrived at the second winery where the cheapest bottle was around $50 and I was waiting for him to abandon the tasting given the steep price tag, but he didn’t. Upon tasting a $150 bottle he circled it. Then drew some stars. Then after a different wine went back and drew more stars. Several circles and stars later he bought one, flooring my entire family. We split the bottle at Christmas 2 years later in 2021, the last time we were all together.~ Story from Carol

Ellen and I had a mass of Barbies and My Little Ponies we would play with while our parents were at work. My dad claimed that at his job he got to play with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Each evening we would ask about our day, and we would tell him the drama about which pony won that day’s fashion show or pony election, and each day he would counter with a more fantastical tale of his turtles and how Donatello schemed to beat Michelangelo in their fashion show.~ Story from Carol

We worked on so many things during the time that he took bass lessons. We started with Jazz. Kenton wanted to learn how to play Jazz. I think this was 2011? He learned very quickly, and was very good at researching and knowing everything about the tune we were playing (as I'm sure you know). Then we started doing some Motown. James Jamerson. Then we slowly transitioned to R&R and basically whatever he wanted to learn. The last piece that he mastered was Orion (Metallica). The bass solo in the middle.He was a great friend. I will miss him dearly. He was such a good person. He loved petting our cat Ollie when he came over for lessons, and always made my son Joey laugh by doing something funny with his mouth or hands. He always talked about Ellen and Carol. He was so happy that Ellen was getting married, and so happy to be a grandfather.~ Story from Tony N.

Kenton interviewed me when I applied for P&G job, I still remember that he asked me a lot of behavior questions, such as how to collaborate and when I have different opinions with the team members what should I do. Kenton is a great mentor for me and the founder of the biostat group -- he never shy of speaking up, and insisted on a high standard of scientific research, which helped our genomic capability to be used widely in beauty, oral care, pet care for credentialing, storytelling, and new ingredient selection.~ Story from Ping H.

We were visiting Kenton & Ann and went on a walk in the woods. It was cicada season, and we could hear them all around. Kenton said “a cicada feels like a finger on your shoulder”. You can guess what happened next- a minute later a “cicada” landed on me.~ Story from Phyllis J.

One Winter Kenton and I were ice skating on a small pond that had recently frozen over. A policeman drove by and told us we shouldn’t be skating on the ice since it wasn’t thick enough yet, they didn’t know how deep it was, and we could fall through. We knew the water was only 8” deep beneath so we told him we were fine, but he made us stop anyway. The policeman drove across the street to a lake where other kids were skating. Due to the ice, the police car couldn’t stop, and started sliding down the hill and then slightly into the frozen lake. Kenton said, “We should go tell him the ice isn’t thick enough for that yet”~ Story from Doug J.

When I was young, we would often go visit Boston, especially when we lived in Norwich, NY. Dad took me to the Boston Computer Museum (unfortunately no longer around), which had a giant “walk through computer”, including a giant keyboard, trackball, and other accessories. I remember him telling me about the “traveling salesman” problem, and also trying to move a trackball that was bigger than me, and sitting on one of the keyboard keys. The giant trackball and keyboard actually worked!~ Story from Ellen

Memorial Service

The memorial service will be held Friday, April 15, 3pm-6pm, at the Groesbeck Estate at the Cincinnati Nature Center. If you are using Google for directions, navigate to the Cincinnati Nature Center at 4949 Tealtown Rd, Milford, OH 45150, then follow the signs within the park to the Groesbeck Estate.Google MapLight refreshments will be served.In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to any of the following organizations that have been important in Kenton’s life. If you would like to add tribute information, enter the following:In Memory of Kenton Juhlin
for Ann Juhlin
ajuhlin@gmail.com
5920 Woodspoint Dr Milford OH 45150Cincinnati Nature CenterUniversity of Illinois Department of StatisticsDeath Valley National Park

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Groesbeck Estate at the Cincinnati Nature Center