ForeverMissed
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His Life

Visionary

January 9, 2011

My brother always had big ideas.  Not only did he come up with some grand aspirations but he relentlessly pursued his goals until he was satisfied with the result.  Given that Ken was a perfectionist, a sense of completion for any given project was always just out of reach.  He had high expectations for himself and others.  That was just how he was - driven. 

When he was very young he took an interest in carpentry.  He set out to build a tree house as many little kids do.  However, his tree house was three levels with pulley systems, swings, and built-in seating.  That was Ken... always coming up with creative ideas and impressing us with his ingenuity.  

As a kid Ken was very interested in biking, particularly 'freestyle'.  Of course those bikes were very expensive and at the time not in our families budget.  So what does Ken do?  Builds his own custom bike out of parts he bought second-hand and parts he salvaged from the dump.  He painted and detailed it himself and when it was finished it was about the coolest thing in the whole neighborhood.  This at the age of 12. 

As a teenager my brother became a bit of a grease monkey - a or term of endearment and a running joke between he and I. I had more respect for his mechanical abilities than he will ever know.  He was fascinated with how things worked and, more importantly, how he could fix things.  It started out by tinkering with his used three-wheeler, then his snow machines and finally his beloved Ford trucks.  One of Ken's passions was sledding on his Polaris snow machines.  This was a past time that he carried with him into adulthood.

As a young adult Ken floundered a bit.  He was unsure of what direction to take with his life and he was feeling impatient.  He did several types of jobs including working as a carpenter's helper and working at LL Bean in the distribution center but he was not satisfied.  This was a very difficult time for him for a number of reasons but he worked through his obstacles to arrive at a place where he was more confident and focused.  All that knew him at this time in his life would attribute this change of heart to his newly discovered passion for dancing.  Not just any dancing - country line dancing.  This was a shocker to me and many of his friends given that growing up he was a 'metal head' listening to the hardest, loudest rock metal he could find.  But country music and line dancing was very popular at the time and he found that it was fun and he enjoyed the company of his new community of friends.  Ken turned out to be a great dancer!!  It didn't take long before people were approaching him to teach them his moves.  And so he began teaching line dancing.  It was right around this time he met his future wife, Jennifer.  Jennifer and Ken enjoyed many of the same interests, especially dancing.  It was impossible to take your eyes off of the two of them when they took to the dance floor. 

When Ken became a father he was about as joyful as is humanly possible.  Ken enjoyed his children immensely and was an active participant in all areas of their lives.  He especially enjoyed sharing outdoor activities with them.  As the family grew Ken realized that they needed more space and so he and his wife designed their future home.  Ken and some very loyal and dedicated friends helped him build their dream home.  It goes without saying that this was a huge undertaking but Ken somehow managed to juggle working full time at Seabee Electric Company, being a husband and father of two children and building a beautifully self-designed ranch style house.

Unfortunately Ken never got to see his home through to completion.  His life was tragically taken just months from the completion date.  It was unbelievably moving to witness his friends, family and coworkers coming together to finish the home for his wife and children.  There was such an outpouring of kindness from ken's friends when he passed.  It was overwhelming to bear witness to the amount of people who attended his memorial service.  There are certain people who went above and beyond (you know who you are) and to them I say thank you from the bottom of my heart.