It is with great sadness that we report the recent passing of Ken Needham. After receiving an undergraduate and graduate degree, Ken went on to serve the Army in Military Intelligence at the Pentagon before becoming one of the founding partners of Urban Decision Systems in the early 1970’s and Scan/US two decades later, which he and his longtime business partner, Vlad Almendinger, were still running at the time of his passing. Ken was one of the original visionaries in our industry who saw the great benefits of demographic data in retail analysis and planning that was made possible with the digital release of the 1970 census. Ken has been a long-term friend, ally, collaborator on data products, and advisor to AGS since our founding.
Much more importantly, as many readers will know, Ken’s son Matt has been our senior vice president and chief demographer for nearly fifteen years, and we recently ensured that the Needham legacy will continue for decades with the addition of Ken’s grandson, Ben, who is focused on our web application development.
Ken will be greatly missed as a friend, colleague, father, and grandfather. His decency and kindness, sense of humor, and simple joy in life affected all he knew. A full obituary can be found at Kenneth Ernest Needham Obituary – Cape Cod Times.