November 9, 1949 - July 7, 2024
In Loving Memory ~
Ken was born and then lived in small Northern Ontario mining towns of Larder Lake, Blind River and Elliot Late. In 1959 he moved with his family to Grand Forks BC and at the age of 9 entered school in grade 4. He remained there through his school years and off and on for a few years after.
Ken was his own person; he did things his way. Even as a young child he was curious and creative. During his school years he would recite long poems to the school audience, The Ancient Mariner being his favourite, and he was active in the drama club.
After a few years being away from Grand Forks he returned for a while to care for our elderly mother. Not wanting to be idle he started The Kenny Drummond Show on the Grand Forks TV Station. A combination of poetry, songs, storytelling and various very silly antics it provided great entertainment to a young Grand Forks audience.
A few years after finishing school Ken relocated to California and spent most of the remainder of his life there living in various places including 29 Palms, Encinitas and later Las Vegas. While in Encinitas he became interested in the SRF Yoga religion.
He also worked there at various times doing maintenance, landscaping and most everything that needed to be done. He became a monk for a short time but as with many of his interests he satisfied his curiosity and moved on. But he did continue these religious interests to various degrees for the rest of his life.
He continued his interest in entertaining throughout his life but also included science, astronomy, computers and anything else where his curiosity led him. He had a long list of poems, songs and portrayals of historic figures that he performed for various audiences, sometimes for profit, sometimes for fun. Many of them may still be on YouTube. He was heavily involved in AI in its very early days.
But Ken would only take his interests to a level to where he understood them. Then he would be off to something else. He never had a real career; wealth was not of great importance - but he was always busy and always had enough to allow him to do what he wanted.
Ken did leave a legacy that should be relevant for many years. He built an Orrery which is a miniature depiction of the sun and all its planets, normally of a size that would fit on a table or desk. But not for Ken, his is in a large field with distant and recently much maligned Pluto in another field far away. Each of the planets is of a correct size, correctly placed and must be altered every few days as the planets circle the sun. If you ever are driving through 29 Palms it's at Sky's The Limit Observatory where Ken had worked occasionally - worth a peek.
A few months before his death I realized that despite seeing and communicating with him frequently over many years I didn't really know much about him. A few months before he died, I was fortunate to spend 4 days with him in southern California where we talked about everything from the day he was born to the present. I realized how smart he was, all the things he had accomplished, the many friends that he had, the people he had helped and never required a thank-you or acknowledgment for what he had done. From talking to a friend, I learned more about his many accomplishments and how everyone respected and loved him.
We know that Ken did things his way. He didn't believe in doctors, hospitals or medicine. A few untreated cancer marks on his arm being untreated for three years became much more and eventually took his life. But even to the end he completely ignored his situation, was busy doing computer work and was planning to drive four hours to visit a friend.
Ken was predeceased by his parents, Frank and Sheilah, his oldest brother Bob and survived by older brother Don, many nieces and grand nephews and nieces.
Ken was a special person.
He made many friends wherever he went. We will all miss him.