Dear Reader,

Perhaps you were fortunate enough to spend time with my husband, Ken.

Perhaps not.

Perhaps some of what I tell will surprise you.

Ken was a man of great energy, focus, drive, determination, and caring.

All along throughout his life and his career, recreation played a key part of his use of time and talents. His parents had encouraged him to take on all kinds of new sports, assuming they could afford them. They loved the out doors, and they conveyed that love to Ken.

Ken approached life and specific ventures with an intensity and focus that would allow him to understand both the minutiae and the grand purpose of a topic. In doing so, he would often find a new approach, a new result, or a better way of doing things.

If Ken felt he had learned and achieved all that he could in an area, he would easily find a new area of interest.

Thus, Ken went from theology to actuarial science, where he created a new life insurance product at Prudential. Gil, a boss whom he really liked, and who knew him well, joked that one of Ken’s friends had the capacity to make Gil look like the village idiot and that Ken had the capacity to make Ken’s friend look like the village idiot. There was a good-natured bettering of each person where they all appreciated the intelligence and contributions of the others.

Once Ken accomplished that product launch, he looked for something else.

He explored the possibilities of a PhD, either in hard sciences or in engineering. He tried physics and learned that physics PhD’s were expected to have gone straight into the field from high school to college to PhD. However, computer science and robotics were hungry for PhD’s and were offering grants to study. Ken kindly chose a school that did not require me to uproot my budding career, and so he went to Columbia University.

He completed his PhD, worked with what was then cutting-edge technology, and realized that what he wanted and what the world wanted were two different things. So, he went back to Prudential and spent a few years building their systems with another group of talented and warm individuals.

Ken left Pru when his boss left, taking on the role of a consultant. He joined the company I founded, and each of us was steadily busy building systems for financial services and pharmaceutical firms.

Ken focused for awhile on risk management. He was tremendously capable of seeing the bigger picture of human behavior. He found that we as humans were most challenged by risks that were infinitesimally small but extremely high impact. He worked on risk management for a few projects and then joined me on Y2K (the computer systems’ nightmare that was going to destroy the world order).

Ken worked from 1997 through 2000 in the pharmaceutical sector on Y2K. A big company enticed us to work end-to-end to examine what would go wrong if the computers no longer worked.

After Y2K was over, the industry changed, and Ken decided to re-focus on recreation.

Climbing – he looked for moderate climbs and hikes and scrambles. Ken was capable of much more intense and difficult climbs than I. He had partners who could do those difficult things with him. But still he kept coming back to climbing with me, helping me to find new routes to enjoy. He observed that a lot of places where we climbed in Europe were set up for parents to bring children. He thought that was a terrific idea and strove to create climbing for moderate climbers, both young and old.

Bicycling – Ken looked for alternate roads, especially in the Hudson Valley, PA and France, so that people who didn’t enjoy road traffic could enjoy road riding.

Skiing – Alpine Touring – Ken had friends who had done some of the most amazing ski tours. He toured in France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well as Utah, Washington, Oregon and Colorado.

Cross-Country Skiing – This may have been the only passion that started with me. I found that I really enjoyed classic skiing, and Ken tried it and found that he enjoyed the power of skating.

Downhill Skiing – Ken was never a racer in this realm, but he was fast and competent and really enjoyed a good powder day or a good corn skiing day.

Ken died when hiking on a moderate but very exposed hike/scramble. A rock broke off, hit him, and knocked him 200 feet down. The next party on the route found him.

Ken was highly focused on good communication. He had a SPOT device which broadcast his location to me about once an hour on his many difficult adventures, either solo or with other friends. He was loving and dependable. I will always miss him.