JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Larry Daniel didn’t know the engineer who came to check on his welding work at the old engine test facility would one day be his father-in-law.

The engineer would never know, this side of Heaven, the welder would one day marry his daughter. But on April 1, the last day of Daniel’s 43-year career at Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE), both of the men were honored.

Daniel came to Naval Air Station Jacksonville as a Sailor in 1971. Two years later, he began work as a welder with plant maintenance at Fleet Readiness Center Southeast, then the Naval Air Rework Facility. Among his first assignments was the old engine testing facility, the lone remnants of which are just a few concrete footers and slabs along the riverbank at Black Point, just behind the current facility.

It was in this role where Daniel worked under Plant Engineering Division Director Richard “Dick” Kemen, who oversaw the repairs to the old facility.

“It wasn’t really much of a test cell,” Daniel recalled. “They had a couple of old buildings that were just ¼-inch steel buildings. It was more or less outside, and it didn’t have much sound suppression. The engines had gotten so noisy, the base was getting daily complaints from people living across the river.”

Unbeknownst to Daniel at the time, Kemen was already working on plans for a new, state-of-the-art facility. Unfortunately in 1978, just before the new testing facility became fully operational, Kemen died of a heart attack at the age of 44.

A few years later, Daniel was at a clothing store at the Orange Park Mall and met a woman who worked there. Here name tag read: Kemen.

“I used to know a Kemen who I worked with on the base,” Daniel told her. “She replied, ‘That was my dad.’”

However, all didn’t go quite so smoothly for Daniel in his attempt to woo the former Kathy Kemen on their first date – a double date with two mutual friends.

“I asked her out, and said she could ride with me,” he said. “The first words out of her mouth were, ‘what do you drive?’

“I said I had a van, and she said she couldn’t do that because her dad told her never to go out with a guy who drove a van. So my buddy rode with me and we met them at the restaurant.”

Posthumously, Richard Kemen became his former worker’s father-in-law. Larry and Kathy Daniel were married in 1985. The years rolled by and Daniel worked his way up at FRCSE Plant Services, where his coworkers devised a supposedly good-natured way of tormenting him. He became known for his die-hard devotion to the University of Florida, which was also his father-in-law’s alma mater. In comical homage, his coworkers began to leave Daniel’s initials and the name of Florida’s most hated rival at various places around FRCSE: LKD Go Dawgs.

On his last day, dozens of Daniel’s pals at Plant Services gathered in the carpenter shop to bid him farewell. Before the cake was cut, he was presented with a portable square of concrete, complete with “his” unique inscription.

Yet there was still one thing left to do.

Also present at Daniel’s retirement were Richard Kemen’s three daughters: Daniel’s wife Kathy, Kelly Smith and Karol Higginbotham. After the celebration at Plant Services, the group, along with three of his grandsons, toured the Kemen Test Cell.

Surrounded by their ancestor’s work, the group stared up at the massive ceilings as most visitors do – yet with a special sense of reverence.

“Ninety-five percent of what he designed is still in use today,” said FRCSE Engineering Technician Travers Grace, who led the tour. “The only things that have changed are the data acquisition system and the augmenter,” which helps in further noise reduction.

For Kemen’s three daughters, it was the first time they’d visited the facility in more than 20 years.

"We were honored to have the opportunity to tour the test cell named after our dad, 38 years after the dedication,” Karol Higginbotham said, speaking for the sisters. “It was amazing to see the foresight our father had when he designed the components of the test cell, and Dad's legacy of innovative thinking continues to support the important mission of FRCSE".

One of Daniel’s two sons has followed in his grandfather’s footsteps. He came to FRCSE for his father’s retirement and recently graduated with an engineering degree from the University of Florida.

“He’s a very smart kid,” Daniel said with a grin. “He must have gotten it from his grandfather.”