Kirby Kean's Biography

Written by Elizabeth Kean-Rodriguez, Daughter of Kirby A. Kean.

Kirby A. Kean was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma on May 16, 1908. He was a twin (Brother David passed away June 1993). He came to Los Angeles with family in 1924 where he attended school for a short time. (Fremont High?).

He joined the Pacific Bell Co. where he worked for a few years. He then worked as a photographer’s apprentice for James Doolittle for most of the 1930’s, where he worked for no salary. Mr. Doolittle always bought lunch (martini’s, usually) and encouraged Kirby to market his photographs to various publications. He was a member of the LA Pictorialists. I believe they met when my father was a student at Art Center. His association with fellow photographers began at Art Center (Herman Wall, Will Connell, Karl Struss, Frank Judson and Albert King).

Mr. Doolittle closed his studio sometime during the War, and Dad (who always had a passion for airplanes) went hunting for work in the aircraft industry. He secured work at Douglas in the mid-forties in a photographic field. He later joined North American Aviation (Rockwell) working in the photo lab at their Corp. Headquarters from 1951 to 1972.

He married Mary Jeannette Wilson in Feb. 1947 after a long distance romance. She lived in Oakland, he in Los Angeles, where he took care of his mother, Lou Kean. They bought their home in Hawthorne in December 1947 and lived there until 1997. They raised two daughters there, Mary and Betty.

Dad took a passionate interest in politics. He was a card-carrying Republican and voiced his opinion religiously to politicians, the Los Angeles Times, TIME, and many other publications.

His wit always dominated his letters to Editors. He developed a few friendships through this with Matt Weinstock and Jack Smith of the Los Angeles Times. He corresponded under the name Russell Upsom Grubb, generating much humor. He once spent an afternoon in a bar with Orson Welles. Mr. Welles was intrigued at meeting Mr. Kean, having such success with Citizen Kane. Dad had tags on his luggage Citizen Kean as well as a hardhat. On his gravestone we put: Kean, Kirby A., Citizen, 1908-1999