Kenneth Franklin Weaver

Memorial services for Kenneth Franklin Weaver, 94, Lawrence, will be at 4 p.m. Oct. 3 at Lawrence Presbyterian Manor Chapel.
Mr. Weaver died Monday, Sept. 20, 2010, at Lawrence Presbyterian Manor.
He was born Nov. 29, 1915, near Grand Junction, Colo., the son of Earnest Frank and Ruby Glandon Weaver. He graduated from Clovis High School in Clovis, N.M., and from McPherson College in McPherson, Kan., in 1937.
Mr. Weaver taught high school in Meriden and at Liberty Memorial High School in Lawrence from 1937 to 1941. He moved to Washington, D.C., in 1941, and then to Arlington, Va., in 1944.
Mr. Weaver worked as a writer for several organizations, then joined the staff of National Geographic magazine in 1952. He rose to senior assistant editor of the magazine and served as science editor for 20 years before retiring in 1985. He wrote many widely acclaimed articles about science and the American space program, including the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, for which he won more than a dozen national awards.
Mr. Weaver was a life member of the Science Writers Association and served as president of the Aviation/Space Writers Association. His work took him to every continent in the world, including a visit to the South Pole.
In Arlington, Mr. Weaver was active in nonpartisan county politics and was a member of the Cosmos Club, the Washington Wine and Food Society, and the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in Arlington. In 2000, Mr. Weaver and his wife returned to Lawrence, and they moved to Lawrence Presbyterian Manor in 2003.
He married Modena Kauffman on June 4, 1939, in Topeka. She survives of the home.
Other survivors include a son, Robert and wife Betsy, Lawrence; a daughter, Kathryn Wynn and husband Richard, Haverford, Pa.; a sister, Evelyn Griffith, McPherson; four grandchildren, Ginny Weaver, Stephanie Weaver Kemper, David Wynn and Mary Beth Wynn; and six great-grandchildren, Camilla Lynch, Nora Lynch, Alexander Wynn, Mia Wynn, Reese Jackson and Ryan Wynn Jackson.
The family suggests memorials to the Good Samaritan Fund at Lawrence Presbyterian Manor or Grace Hospice (formerly Heart of America Hospice) of Lawrence.
Online condolences may be sent at warrenmcelwain.com.