Bio - Ken Koe (Bass)

My first choral group was the Ledyard Ecumenical Choir led by Connie Dutton. I joined ECSC after she became director of the Chorus. When Connie left, I stopped for a while, and rejoined when Pat Uguccioni was choral director (she prepared us for the Mahler Symphony No. 2 concert by ECSO and combined choruses in Worcester, MA). I stayed with ECSC, under the direction of Peter Bagley, and now Mark Singleton. ECSC trips have been great experiences: performing in Carnegie Hall in New York, doing Carmina Burana with Acadiana Symphony and Chorus in 2002 in Lafayette, LA, singing the Verdi Requiem with China National Symphony and Chorus in 2004 in Beijing, and the 2009 Greek Islands singing cruise. In May 2010, other ECSC singers and I joined Greater Middletown Chorale for its Mendelssohn’s Elijah production. In January 2011, I sang with Mystic River Chorale in its Brahms Requiem concert at Harkness Chapel. I am also a choir member at United Methodist Church of Gales Ferry.

I was born in Astoria, Oregon (western end of Lewis & Clark Trail) and grew up in Portland. I attended college and graduate schools in Oregon, Washington, and California. I joined Pfizer in Brooklyn, NY as a chemist in antibiotics and retired from the Groton site as a neuroscientist in psychotherapeutic drugs. Research on the neurotransmitter serotonin led to the discovery of the antidepressant, sertraline hydrochloride, which was marketed as Zoloft in 1992 (for story, Google Kenneth Koe). My earlier discovery that p-chlorophenylalanine blocks serotonin biosynthesis prompted its use in treating some symptoms of the carcinoid syndrome in patients. Cannabinoids also have been an interest. I go to meetings of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the International Cannabinoid Research Society.

My late wife was a Ledyard school teacher. I have two daughters, one (LICSW) in Massachusetts, one (MD) in California, and between them, five grandchildren. I was elected to the Ledyard Town Council for three terms. Presently, I am a member of the Planning Commission and a justice of the peace in Ledyard. I serve on boards of Thames Valley Music School and Ledyard Inter-Church Emergency Fund.