Arthur Ditchfield Storke, C.M.G., was killed on 9th September, 1949, at the age of 54, in the same air crash near Quebec in which Mr. R.J. Parker lost his life. They were travelling together in company with Mr. E.T. Stannard, also killed, the president of the Kennecott Copper Corporation, which position Mr. Storke was to have taken over at the end of the year.
Mr. Storke attended the Leland Stanford University, California, and Colorado University from 1912 to 1915, and in 1916 was appointed engineer to the American Metal Co., Ltd., of New York. He joined the U.S. Army and served in France from 1917 to 1918, and on demobilization returned to Colorado as manager of the Michigan Copper Co. For five years subsequently he practised as consulting engineer in association with Mr. Carl O. Lindberg in Los Angeles, and in 1926 rejoined the American Metal Co., Ltd., as manager of the Climax mine at Climax, Colorado, and manager of Cape Copper Co., Ltd., Namaqualand, South Africa.
In 1929 Mr. Storke took up the appointment of London manager and managing director of Roan Antelope Copper Mines, Ltd., Mufulira Copper Mines, Ltd., and Rhodesian Selection Trust, Ltd., and held these positions for eighteen years. He was also a director of Trepca Mines, Ltd., from 1939 to 1944. In 1947 he became president of Climax Molybdenum Co., New York, and had resigned on accepting the presidency of the Kennecott Copper Corporation. He had also for many years been chairman of the management committee of the Copper Development Association.
After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Mr. Storke reported for the British Government on the mining industry of Malaya, and for his services during the 1939-45 war was awarded the C.M.G.
Mr. Storke was elected to Membership of the Institution in 1932 and served as a Member of Council from 1937 until 1940.
Vol. 59, Trans I.M.M., 1949-50, p.?
