Ken was born with a passion for social causes.

As a teenager he attended a liberal youth group who discussed the ill-conceived Vietnam War and many other issues. Despite being under draft age he and the group believed protest actions must be taken. He helped place stickers widely around York that said “Vietnam War” and placed them on traffic stop signs.

This drew the attention wanted as well as the police attention. They were ready to issue a warrant for defacing stop signs, public property. His father was distressed to think his son would be branded a juvenile delinquent.

An arrangement was made that if the kids would remove the stickers no charges would be brought. Ken would have liked to express his protest in some meaningful way such as burning a draft card, but he was born too late. He did not turn eighteen until 1974 and by then the draft and the war were over. He never had the pleasure of publicly expressing his well-developed social conscience in that public manner.

Ralph Dermota