A Mt. Vernon man was honored on Friday, Jan. 17, for his nearly 20 years of service as the Grant County Soil and Water Conservation District’s manager.

From now on, the building at 721 S. Canyon Blvd. in John Day that houses the district’s offices will be known as the Kenneth H. Delano Agricultural Service Center.

Ken Delano brought an operational culture to the Soil and Water Conservation District that is still in place within the organization 14 years after Delano retired, according to the district’s current manager, Kyle Sullivan.

SWCD Board Chair Pat Voigt said the organization is considered a “well-oiled machine,” and those familiar with the district know that Delano was the one who designed and built that machine.

“He just had a way of taking the ego out (of projects),” Voigt said. “(He said) ‘I don’t care who takes credit — let’s just get this project done.’”

Delano was more than just a good administrator, Voigt added. He was considered a “renaissance man” by those closest to him for his ability to use engineering and computers during his workday and then head home to raise, train and drive Belgian draft horses on his 150 acres of property near Clyde Holliday State Park.

Voigt said the SWCD also wanted to honor Delano’s service to his country.

Before joining the district, Delano served in the Navy for more than two decades.

Delano said he dropped out of high school at 17 to enlist in the Navy but ended up advancing his education in the service. By the time he retired, he had a bachelor of science degree in engineering physics from the University of Kansas and a master’s in business management from Central Michigan University.

Delano credits his academic success to his late wife, Dorene, whom he married before shipping out to boot camp in 1960. Delano said Dorene took care of their five kids as he immersed himself in his studies.

In 1981, the family took a vote and moved back to Grant County from Bremerton, Washington, after Delano retired from the Navy.

After returning to Grant County, Delano said he needed to feel like he was working for a significant cause. And that, he said, was what the SWCD gave him.

After contributing in what he described as a small way to America’s victory in the Cold War, Delano said the SWCD gave him the same feeling he had in the service that he was part of something bigger than himself.

Shaun Robertson began working with Delano in 1997, when Robertson moved back to Grant County from Idaho to build the Warm Springs Tribes’ John Day Basin program. The two continued to work together on a close professional level for the next seven or eight years, and Robertson said their personal relationship endures to this day.

“When I speak of the John Day conservation program, I tell people that contemporary agency and NGO staff find their work easier only because they are standing on the shoulders of great pioneers and Ken is one of the largest,” Robertson said, “which most people probably wouldn’t perceive because he’s so humble and unassuming.”

Robertson said that Delano built an amazingly successful program during a time when not only was agency-led conservation generally unpopular but landowners cared more about someone’s word than how much money could be thrown at projects.

According to Delano, his “ace in the hole” was that he had worked for a handful of the landowners in the area and had already earned their trust.

“They knew me personally,” Delano said.

Robertson noted that Delano built credibility for every organization and person who worked cooperatively with the district. According to Robertson, not one of them working in the John Day Basin today would be where they are without the foundation he constructed.

Jeff Neal, a retired fish biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said he was tasked in the late 1980s with spearheading a variety of fish conservation projects. Because of Delano’s efforts on hundreds of fish-passage diversion projects, Neal said, the Grant County Soil and Water Conservation District became the envy of the rest of the state and beyond.

“Having the quality of the Grant County program led by Ken Delano ended up being a model for 100 other counties, not just in Oregon, but other states,” Neal said.

NAME: Ken Delano

RESIDENCE: Mt. Vernon

OCCUPATION: Retired manager of the Grant County Soil and Water Conservation District, which he led from 1988 to 2007

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: During Delano’s tenure, the SWCD oversaw nearly 150 permanent fish-diversion projects on private property

EDUCATION: Delano holds a bachelor of science in engineering physics from the University of Kansas and a master’s in business management from Central Michigan University