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Herbert Baldwin McKean was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, November 28, 1911, the son of Scott Rockwell and Martha (Hutchings) McKean. He entered the New York State College of Forestry, Syracuse University in September 1929, receiving his B.S. degree in Wood Utilization in June 1933. He did graduate work on scholarship and received his Master of Forestry degree from the same university in June 1934. Later, in 1942, he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan.

He began his career as a tie and log buyer for T.J. Moss Tie Co. in western Tennessee, where he was employed from June 1934 to September 1935. From 1935 to 1942 he taught wood technology and utilization in the forestry department at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. Following receipt of his Ph.D. he became a technologist at the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. From 1945 to 1954 he worked for Timber Engineering Company, Washington, D.C., first as assistant and later as associate director of research.

In 1954 he was hired by Potlatch Forest, Inc., Lewiston, Idaho, to start and build a Research and Development Department. He was elected Vice President of Research and Development in 1968, serving in that capacity until his retirement on December 31, 1976. Some notable developments during his administration at Potlatch include laminated roof decking, stored heat glue curing, the world's first oriented strand commercial plant, coatings for high quality printing papers, new paper grades, and a reduction in operating costs for the sulphite pulp mill. He was the first to conceive and use the idea of measuring the modules of elasticity as a nondestructive test or mechanical method for grading lumber, and was responsible for the development and commercialization of machine stress rating (MSR) of lumber in the U.S. and holds the first U.S. patent on MSR. He also received the Charles Dudley medal from the American Society for Testing and Materials for this work.

From 1955 to 1959 he served as a trustee of the Inland Empire Section of the Forest Products Research Society, serving as chairman in 1957. In 1958 he became a charter member of the organization which later became the Society of Wood Science and Technology. From 1968 to 1990 he served as Chairman of the Board of Review of the American Lumber Standards Committee. Following his retirement from Potlatch he was associated with International Executive Services Corporation as a wood products consultant, working in the United States and foreign countries.