Dear Kerstin and Andrew,
Andrea and I are very saddened to hear about Ken’s passing.
The “Lebenslauf” you wrote does justice to your gentle, good humored giant, but I’d like to expand to the period we had the pleasure of knowing him and having him as a member of our team.
On the personal side, he always beamed both in your presence and when speaking of you, but was almost intolerable when Andrew came along:). He was one proud dad and husband!
My first exposure to Ken was when he came to us with his Base Ops colleagues to build the first flight dispatch operation for the USAF in 1999 at the USAFE AMOCC. He was probably the most skeptical of all at what we wanted to achieve, but as we progressed forward, he became the rock upon which I leaned to keep the mission running smoothly and prove our concept. Whenever you see a USAF airlift or tanker aircraft these days, you can thank Ken for the groundwork laid to manage their movements worldwide.
It wasn’t until years later at Robins when he shared what he’d done to keep the surface of the water smooth, some of it unprintable in this forum, but I’m very thankful for his tact, diplomacy, and leadership. He came across sometimes as the big teddy bear, but could he ever put the hammer down, and because most of our new dispatchers were very young, he mentored them to keep them on track and produced a group of fine, successful group of fledgling flight dispatchers. Almost all members of the initial cadre reaped the benefits of our success, due in large part to the work Ken did to manage the personnel and mission execution issues so we could concentrate on showing that the concept was and is viable. Thank you one last time, Ken.
Those were fun times, made even better by Ken’s hearty laugh and good natured demeanor. Work was work, but his life was you, Kerstin and Andrew. I’m very grateful for the time we had together. Godspeed. Tom Manley, Col, USAF (Ret)