Kenneth Lee Wertz

02/06/1944 - 10/31/2025

Kenneth Lee Wertz died on October 31, 2025 at his home in Prospect, Kentucky. He was born in Dayton, Ohio on February 6, 1944 to Robert William Wertz and Evelyn Jane Apple Wertz.

Ken was an Ohio boy. He grew up in Cincinnati and attended public school where he gained a lifelong pleasure in athletics, in music and in academic studies.

His family moved to Springfield, Virginia in 1957. In high school, Ken played basketball and baseball and was recognized for his contributions with the Most Valuable Player award.

Ken fell in love with Duke University at first sight and made life-long friends through Pi Kappa Phi. After earning a BA in math at Duke, he completed his doctorate in economics at Carnegie Mellon University. Ken taught economics first at the University of Michigan and then at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In 1980, Ken left the academic world to join the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation in Washingto, DC. Ken was the lead Congressional economist responsible for the reform of the capital cost recovery rules in the 1981 Economic Recovery Tax Act and the 1986 Tax Reform Act. He was a master of the intricate tax rules governing the depreciation of real and personal property.

After the 1986 Tax Reform Act was signed into law, Ken joined Price Waterhouse (later PricewaterhouseCoopers) where he was a partner in the Washington National Tax Office. He was one of the founding partners of the Tax Economics Department. He is remembered by his Joint Committee colleagues as friendly and modest, with a very big intellect.

In later years, when asked what his profession had been, Ken simply said "I was a tax guy".

Ken is survived by his wife of 26 years, Martha Ann; his step sons, David and John Fuller who loved him deeply and revered him; his daughter-in-law Karen Baetzel Fuller, and his beloved granddaughters, Margaret Jane and Eleanor Elizabeth Fuller; his sister Barbara Currier, his brother-in-law John Currier; his niece Gwynne Faris and nephew Mark Currier; their spouses Ron Faris and Sarah Currier; and five great nieces and nephews; his brother-in-law Daniel Rives Kistler and his spouse Tim Macguigan.

After retirement, he traveled adventurously and widely across the world with his wife Martha Ann. Ken enjoyed spending summers in Maine with Martha Ann at their Farview Cottage where they cherished moments with family and friends and took walks along the rocks overlooking John's Bay.

Ken is loved for many qualities, among them his far reaching intelligence, his integrity, and his kindness. He liked a good game of golf.

A Memorial Service to celebrate Ken's life will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, November 22, 2025 at Highland Presbyterian Church, 1011 Cherokee Road, Louisville.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to the J.B. Speed Art Museum, 2035 South Third Street, Louisville, KY 40208 and to the Louisville Ballet, 315 East Main Street, Louisville, KY 40202.