After graduate school, Ken worked numerous seasons as a
park technician, volunteer and forestry technician in
Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Arapaho-Roosevelt National
Forest. It was during one of these seasons that he met
and married his wife, Bonnie Peterson, a
singer/guitarist working for the Grand Teton Lodge
Company.
Ken and Bonnie have two children, Katie and Tristan, who
were a part of their roller coaster tour-of-duty through
Death Valley, Lava Beds, Pacific West Regional Office,
the National Interagency Fire Center, and finally Crater
Lake. Ken’s park work and family were interrupted twice
for active duty in the United States Coast Guard for
support of both Iraq conflicts. The first was in 1991
and the second was in 2003.
Ken still plans to continue his Coast Guard reserve work
as a pollution investigator and environmental education
specialist. He also plans to continue volunteering as a
violin and viola instructor in the Klamath Falls city
schools at Mills Elementary, where his wife works as a
music teacher.
During Ken’s “retirement”, he will be working with his
daughter on a book of short stories about his family’s
many experiences in parks and forests. Although he will
miss his NPS family and all the beautiful and sometimes
remote work sites, he is ready for a change, a chance to
be closer to home, and the new challenges of helping
manage a municipal park program.
