John Durden - Obituary
Posted on 14th January 2025 at 13:21
Our founder, John Durden, died peacefully in his sleep at home on 21st December 2024 after a two-year battle with cancer.
His funeral was on 21st January 2024. If you would like to make a donation in his memory to Willen Hopsice, who looked after him so will in his final few weeks, please do so here.
After leaving his home in north London to study Civil Engineering at Manchester in 1968 he took his first job with WS Atkins in 1971 who were consulting engineers. He started at the drawing board and spent a year in their office but soon wanted more practical experience.
In 1972 he joined Laing and, as a young engineer, was involved with building motorways and roads, moving onto chimneys in power stations in Essex. His role at Laing ultimately brought him to Milton Keynes were they had the contract to prepare all the road and drainage infrastructure for the shopping centre. This involved a huge amount of groundworks due to its position on top of a hill. He was never a conventional manager and had to deal with strikes and tricky access, having to ship machine drivers in over the fields in Land Rovers.
From 1976 he lived in digs in Cranfield and ultimately bought his first house in North Crawley where he frequented the Cock Inn Public House and, in time, the Cock Inn Golf Society (CIGS).
In 1977 John left Laing and joined John Coleman Civil Engineering (JCCE) whose yard and office was located between the two railway bridges on the Old Wolverton Road. JCCE were a predominantly Irish company who specialised in pipe-jacking all over the country. There were not many companies who dug tunnels under roads and railways, but the Pipe Jacking Association were a sociable bunch and gathered regularly for their Annual General Meetings in many exotic locations .
John met his wife, Kim, in 1978, they married in 1980 with daughter Hannah arriving in 1982 and son William in 1984. In 1979 he took his final employment with Delta but, with two toddlers at home and his work taking him all over the country, he decided to set up his own contracting firm to allow him more flexibility and to be closer to home which, by then, was in Filgrave.
Not renowned for his romantic gestures he decided to call the company K.I.M Developments Ltd after his wife. At the same time he set up K.I.M Building and Civil Engineering and K.I.M Contractors followed in 1991. Their first big contract was a car park at Cranfield University followed by a planned maintenance contract for MK Council’s social housing in 1990. Initially the business was run from a home office in Filgrave but John soon realised he would get more work done if he didn’t work from home.
KIM completed their first development of 3 homes in Broughton in 1991 and took a lease for a yard at Lower Farm the following year. In 1994 John bought premises on Olney High Street, two doors down from Brian and David Minnie who supplied cigarettes, pork pies and fuel for the workforce. John subsequently agreed with his Landlord, Doug Stevens, to develop one of the barns at their yard in Lower Farm and moved the main office there where it has been ever since. The last bit of work done to the yard took place in 2024 to create the carpenter’s workshop.
John enjoyed cars – both classic and new – not to mention a project. Whether it was designing and building a new compost heap, an extension or a new house, he always took a practical view on life. He loved complicated projects and took on many a project at KIM that was not the most straightforward with an incredible knowledge of working on heritage buildings. He used his mechanical brain and training as an engineer to solve many a problem including improving water pressure, drainage or improving architect’s designs to ensure they were buildable and could be maintained.
John was always determined, often outspoken and prepared to call a spade a bloody shovel. He was a marmite character to some but he instilled amazing loyalty in those who decided they liked him and he was fiercely loyal in return: always adding value whether that was buying the first round, fixing something or running a Charity ball.
John finally retired in 2023, shortly after being diagnosed with cancer for the second time. But he never really stopped working and was always asking after new work and keeping an eye on the business bank account via his banking app.
We will miss him hugely although look forward to taking the business forward, engaging new technologies and automating some of the John Durden Processes that have been in place for many years, as well as developing (and often re-learning) traditional building methods that we will continue to use for years to come.
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