Ken Neely

Hydrogeologist

Ken started his geology career in 1975 at West Virginia University when he switched from being a Forestry major to a Geology major.

He graduated in 1979 from WVU and proceeded to the University of Idaho to study carbonate sedimentology, which resulted in an MS degree in 1981. Ken worked for Exxon Company from 1981-1988. It was a good job, but Ken and Nancy wanted to raise their family closer to family, so they loaded up the van and moved back to Idaho. He studied hydrogeology under Dale Ralston at the University of Idaho from 1988-1990, and then took a job with the Idaho Department of Water Resources in Boise. For 28 and a half years, he worked on ground water quality, ground water level, and geothermal issues for the state of Idaho. Ken retired from IDWR in 2018, ready to begin a new phase of life. Well, mostly ready. He and Nancy are still working out the details. Ken published many technical reports while at IDWR. He plans on doing more writing in retirement, maybe some in the technical genre, and some in the fiction genre. Well, after all, geology is a mix of fact and imagination, right?