Kenneth B. Tator, PE, of Pittsburgh, PA had a fatal heart attack on May 7, 2026 while visiting friends in Houston, Texas. His wife, Maureen Tator, passed away 7½ months earlier in September 2025. Ken was 84 years old. Ken, a registered Professional Engineer in multiple states, was an icon in the protective coatings industry. He was an AMPP Corrosion Specialist, AMPP Coating Inspector, SSPC Certified Protective Coating Specialist, and a Nuclear Safety-Related Coating Engineer and Specialist.
He grew up in the protective coatings business. His father, Kenneth Tator, launched Kenneth Tator Associates (KTA) in the basement of their home outside of Coraopolis, PA in 1949. He started the company to help facility owners save money by identifying the optimum coating systems they should use to protect their steel from corrosion. He accomplished this by cleaning and painting specialized test panels he invented and installing them in the various exposure environments of industrial facilities. Based on inspections of the panels every few months, he was able to predict the long-term performance of candidate coating systems. In 1954, Mr. Tator moved KTA into a nearby home, where Ken spent his spare time working for the company, blast cleaning test panels and helping to paint them, among other duties associated with the business.
After high school, Ken attended Lafayette College and graduated in 1963 with a degree in Chemical Engineering. He worked briefly for Scott Paper Company, then enrolled in the military, serving in the Navy and Marine Corps from 1963 to 1966. Near the end of his service, he and his father agreed that he would eventually assume the leadership of KTA but needed to first learn how to run a business, which led him to the Columbia Business School, where he graduated in September 1968 with an MBA. In October, he returned home and began working for KTA, preparing to learn the technical side of the business for a few years before his father transitioned from the company. In addition to the test panel studies and consulting work, KTA offered inspection services to verify the proper implementation of the painting recommendations, sold a few inspection instruments, and provided coatings training programs.
Unfortunately, the plans for a multi-year transition did not come to fruition. On January 11, 1968, three months after Ken started with the company full-time, Mr. Tator suffered a fatal heart attack. The day after his father’s passing, 27-year-old Ken Tator held a meeting with the employees, telling them that he was dedicated to learning the technical aspects of the business and would do his best to keep the company afloat. So, literally overnight, a company of led by a well-known industry leader, became a company of five led by a young man with limited coatings knowledge. True to his word, he subsequently spent countless hours at Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, researching anything related to coatings to support the services he would continue to offer.
Ken quickly learned that the company had only been operating at break-even for years and had a critical need for cash flow. Given his limited technical knowledge at the time, he focused on expanding the inspection instrument sales business. He contacted numerous instrument manufacturers to solidify distribution agreements, invested his limited funds into monthly magazine ads, and sold instruments at trade shows, which was a practice that was frowned on at the time, but Ken had no choice.
He would tell the story of new customers who had heard of Kenneth Tator, and unaware of his death, would hire Mr. Tator to visit a jobsite. Needing the work and having the benefit of being named Ken Tator, he made the trips without telling them his father had passed. Upon his arrival, clients would comment that he was much younger than they expected given his reputation. At that point, he explained his father’s death but since he was already on site, they had little option but to show him their problems. Ken took detailed notes, collected multiple samples, and took extensive photographs. Upon returning home he researched the issues in the library, talked with colleagues at KTA and his father’s friends who were a tremendous help to him, and consulted local laboratories for their opinions. He successfully distilled the information and opinions into a technical report addressing the cause(s) of the problem and solutions.
He also focused on developing his own name recognition, spending hours on technical committees of ASTM, NACE, and SSPC, assuming leadership positions whenever possible, and writing and presenting technical papers at industry conferences. Under Ken’s leadership, the company grew significantly in the 1970s. He developed sophisticated analytical and physical testing laboratories to enhance consulting services, expanded third-party inspection services into the growing nuclear industry, increased the number of facility condition assessments, expanded KTA’s training services, and added more instruments to the sales line. At the end of the 1970s, KTA had 18 full-time employees.
In 1983, Ken had the experience of a lifetime. Because of his reputation, Pentek, Inc. hired Ken and a representative from Bechtel Group, Inc. to study the performance of the protective coatings in the Three Mile Island reactor building, which had undergone a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) in March 1979. The Electric Power and Research Institute (EPRI) funded the study. This was the first opportunity for the industry to assess the real-world performance of protective coatings in containment after experiencing a catastrophic accident. This work enhanced KTA’s position as an expert in nuclear coatings consulting and inspection.
Years later, Ken fully supported the company’s expansion into areas that he was less familiar with – the design and inspection of lead paint removal projects, including safety and industrial hygiene; steel fabrication and concrete inspection; and commercial building inspection. Although he wasn’t intimately familiar with these services, he always made sure each group was managed by an expert in the field.
In the early 2000s, Ken began planning for his succession. While he remained CEO, he turned the Presidency over in 2001. The company had grown to about 200 employees at the time. Once it became known that KTA might be available for sale, venture capitalists and synergistic buyers were constantly at the doorstep making substantial offers. Ken was concerned about the inevitable changes such buyers would make to the company, especially the replacement of personnel who had been so loyal to KTA throughout the years. The idea of becoming an employee-owned company (ESOP) was presented to him by the management team. After weighing all options, he decided that becoming an ESOP, even though it provided a lesser return for him personally would better secure everyone’s future. In 2010, the company became a 70% employee-owned ESOP, moving to 100% ownership In December 2015. While Ken was no longer involved with daily activities, he still performed consulting work and remained on the Board of Directors.
Ken was a prolific author, publishing dozens of papers to educate and improve the knowledge of the industry. A publication of specific note is the 2015 ASM Handbook, Volume 5B Protective Organic Coatings. As the Editor, Ken assembled a team of over 80 authors and reviewers to create a comprehensive 545-page book covering nearly all aspects of protective coatings in detail – the chemistry behind dozens of coating materials, various methods of surface preparation and coating application, the coating systems used in various industries, and coating failure analysis and laboratory testing.
He was also the recipient of many industry awards. The most recent was the “Russell Brannon & John Keane Signature Award” that Ken received on March 18 at the AMPP 2026 annual conference in Houston, TX, a mere two months prior to his passing. The award is given to a current, active member of AMPP whose exceptional service, commitment, and leadership have influenced the progression and realization of AMPP’s strategic objectives.
Ken always remained physically active. He played basketball since he was a child and continued playing as an adult. In 2017, Ken played on the USA over-75 team in an International competition, winning the gold medal in Italy. He was also an avid tennis player.
Ken Tator was the consummate entrepreneur, leader, and risk-taker, personally guaranteeing loans in the early years to never miss a payroll. He was a mentor to many within the KTA organization, coaching them personally and professionally. He was an industry icon, troubleshooting coatings problems and providing cost-effective solutions for the protection of metallic and concrete substrates. He gave back to the industry he loved, working with ASTM, NACE, SSPC and others, to develop the standards that are taken for granted today. He was a caring and faithful friend to many and a loving husband and father of five. He will be greatly missed.