KENNTEH GENE SHERMAN

1924 - 2019

February 4, 1924 -
September 4, 2019

If you asked Ken Sherman about his greatest accomplishment in life, it wouldn't be his service in the U.S. Navy during World War II. It wouldn't be rising through the worker ranks from get-it-done laborer to respected manager at Texaco. It wouldn't be his work as a church deacon and elder, nor his abiding faith in God, though all of those were important to him.

It would be his family. His 71-year marriage to high school sweetheart LaVerne Kirkpatrick Sherman. His five accomplished children, 12 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

Ken Sherman, first, foremost and always a proud family man, died peacefully in his sleep on Wednesday, September 4, at Anacortes, WA. He was 95.

Kenneth Gene Sherman was born on February 4, 1924, in Michigan to Myron and Charlotte Sherman. His family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, while he was an infant, and he spent his formative years there. He had one sister, Betty. The Shermans subsequently put down roots in California, where Ken graduated in 1942 from David Starr Jordan High School in Long Beach.

While there, he met the love of his life, LaVerne Kirkpatrick; he was a letterman on the varsity baseball team; played in the school band and orchestra; served as a Student Council representative; and was a member of the Men's Club. He graduated just months after the United States entered World War II.

Ken didn't hesitate when duty called. He joined the Navy shortly after high school and recently said it was his musical background that made running a ship's radio a match for his talents. He was a radioman aboard the U.S.S. Delphinus, a 328-foot store ship that left San Francisco in September 1942 to supply hungry troops with food in the Pacific Theater. Stationed in Auckland, New Zealand, the Delphinus carried chilled and frozen provisions to forward bases in the South Pacific and the Society, Fiji and Samoan islands from late 1942 through the end of 1945, according to an online history of the ship.

Ken didn't speak much about his service, though he would answer questions when asked. He recently joked he was fortunate to be stationed aboard a supply ship because he and his crewmates had good chow while other troops including his best friend Jack Gates ate cold rations in the field. But he also knew the Delphinus lived amid constant danger, just one Japanese torpedo away from doom. He was grateful, he said, for the safe passage the Delphinus managed.

When Ken's ship returned to San Francisco on February 23, 1946, LaVerne was there waiting for him. Their abiding love, buoyed by letters to each other, withstood the rigors of war and long separation. They wasted no time. The couple were married on March 3, just eight days after he returned. They remained together for more than seven decades, until death took LaVerne two years ago. Still, Ken wore his wedding ring, forever wed to his high school sweetheart.

Ken and LaVerne began their family in the Long Beach-Lakewood area of California. He went to work at the Texaco refinery in Wilmington. Two sons: Ken Jr., and Ron were born in 1948 and 1950. The young family filled their lives with friends, church activities and camping trips. When Texaco was preparing to open a new facility in Anacortes, the company offered employees the opportunity to move. Ken and LaVerne, wanting a change of scenery and a lovely city in which to raise their family, relocated to Washington in 1958. In the space of a few years, twins: Kirk and Dolly and son Rick came along.

While he and LaVerne raised their family of five, Ken worked his way up the employee chain to foreman at Texaco and was periodically called to help out at plants in Texas and Honduras. He was well respected. "I worked many years with your Dad," one friend of Kirk's wrote on Facebook Wednesday. "He was a great man."

Along the way, Ken found time to be a church deacon and elder. He pursued a passion for flying, earning a pilot's license, becoming part owner of a Cessna-150, serving as a lieutenant in the Civil Air Patrol, and taking family members on unforgettable flyovers above the San Juans. He played in an Anacortes stage band and lent his voice to the Society for the Preservation of Barbershop Singing in America.

Camping with family and friends was a constant, too. As was Ken's legendary love of baseball and support for the Seattle Mariners. He rarely missed a televised game and went to the stadium when he could. An indelible highlight of his life, he later said, was the trip son Rick and grandson Alex took him on a few years ago to see the Indians play in Cleveland, the city he considered his hometown.

After he retired from Texaco, he and LaVerne spent three summers camping and working at Yellowstone National Park, Ken putting his amateur photography knowledge to use in one of the souvenir shops while LaVerne worked in food service. Ken taught himself to paint, and he set up a little studio in his garage, creating oil paintings of fishing boats and mountain scenes, landmarks and landscapes around Anacortes and the San Juans, and LaVerne's parents' pink stucco home in Long Beach.

But his most cherished delight was time spent with family, whether quiet evenings with LaVerne; large, noisy holiday gatherings; or grandchildren and great-grandchildren sitting in his lap. (Or even leaving toys strewn about the house as they ran, giggling, for hugs and kisses from Grandma and Grandpa.)

Ken is survived by his five children and their spouses: Ken Jr. (Kathleen) of Bandon, OR; Ron (Kris) of Fox Island, Kirk (Linda) of Mount Vernon, Dolly (Patrick) of Anacortes, WA and Rick (Jeanette) of Jefferson, OR; 12 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. The grands all adored their "Grandpa" or "Papa" as much as he them.

"Any man can be a Father," the saying goes. "It takes someone special to be a Dad." Ken Sherman knew that. Ken Sherman lived that. He was steadfast member of "The Greatest Generation," and he will be dearly missed.

Graveside Service with Military Honors will be held 10:00 a.m. Saturday, September 28, 2019 at Fernhill Cemetery, followed by a Memorial Service with Reception at 11:00 a.m. at the Anacortes Christian Church.

Suggested donations in memory of Ken may be made to the Anacortes Christian Church.

To share memories of Ken, please sign the online guestbook at www.evanschapel.com