Ken Duckert, resident of Corrales New Mexico for 12 years, died at his home on May 19 of a rare form of aggressive leukemia. As a boy in Michigan, he roamed the local fields, woods and streams developing his strong interest in nature. After working as a sports photographer for several Detroit area newspapers, he began combining his love of nature with his photographic skills. Ken extended his photography abilities while living in Walnut Creek California, Singapore and traveling to thirty countries. As a public-school administrator in California, he won several awards for his work with local police departments in their efforts to develop anti-drug and anti-gang programs for middle school and high school students. He also led school advocacy programs for state legislators through his membership in the California School Administrators Association. To share his love of the natural world he developed and directed environmental education programs in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District which enabled 32,000 students a year to go off their campuses for overnight camping experiences in San Francisco Bay area natural settings, in the Sierra Nevada gold country and in the coastal redwoods.

While living in Corrales Ken served on a number of village committees, was president of Corrales Society of Artists for several years and directed the Corrales Art Studio Tour various times. He is survived by his wife, Sandy Duckert, his daughter, Amy Bell and his two grandchildren, Clayton, and Maisie Bell. A private family service will be held in the future. In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory to Hawks Aloft (hawksaloft.org) or WildEarth Guardians (wildearthguardians.org) would honor his love of the natural world.