OSAGE CITY, Kan. – Kenneth Stephen Wilk, 67 years old, devoted husband, father, grandfather, brother, and uncle, passed away Feb. 1, 2025, at home surrounded by his family following a courageous battle with cancer. Ken was born on May 22, 1957, in Hackensack, N.J., the son of Robert J. and Barbara H. Wilk.
Ken graduated from Hasbrouck Heights High School in 1975. His youth was spent playing street hockey, playing and coaching baseball, and participating in Boy Scouts, where he attained the rank of Eagle Scout at age 13. Ken had several jobs in his youth, sweeping floors and tidying up in the local pharmacy, delivering newspapers from the seat of his bicycle, working in a local pizza shop where he learned to make fantastic pizza, stacking and moving about glass bottles of milk in the local dairy, and pumping gas and cleaning windshields at a service station. Summer vacations were spent on the Jersey shore, soaking up the sand and the sun. His parents purchased land in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, and together the family slowly built a second small home Ken designed that would eventually be his parents retirement home and a beautiful retreat for the entire family.
On Sept. 24, 1983, he was united in marriage to Sally Kuykendall, at a ceremony on her parents’ farm in rural Osage County. He quickly adopted Kansas as his new home and found great peace and solace in the rural Kansas lifestyle.
Ken received a B.S. in Forestry in 1979 from Pennsylvania State University. In 1978 and 1979 he worked as a seasonal park ranger for the National Park Service at Sandy Hook – Gateway National Recreation Area, in New Jersey.
In 1980, Ken interviewed by phone for a park ranger position with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Kansas, and was offered a job at Melvern Lake. Ken had never been west of Pennsylvania, but seeking his life’s adventure he packed his possessions in his 1979 Ford pickup and headed west to Melvern Lake, where he embarked on a 34-year career with the Corps of Engineers. Most of those years were spent as a park ranger at Melvern Lake, but he also was stationed at Kanopolis Lake for one year and Pomona Lake for two years.
From 2000 to 2008, Ken accepted an assignment as Assistant National Coordinator for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Celebration. In that role, he had the honor and pleasure of coordinating with other federal agencies to tell the story of the Lewis & Clark Expedition of 1803-1806. He helped develop and implement the Corps of Engineers’ interpretive displays and historic reenactments from the east coast to the west coast of the United States including the Pentagon, Monticello, and at numerous locations along the entire length of the Missouri River from Missouri to Oregon.
From 2013 until 2023 Ken worked for the Kansas State Historical Society, and served as the historic site administrator for Red Rocks Historic Site, Emporia, Kan.
Ken served the community in many ways. Through his work as a park ranger, he realized a need and became an emergency medical technician in 1984, and not only used those skills in his job as a park ranger but also was the EMT for the Melvern Fire Department rescue squad for 15 years. Ken served on the board of directors for Osage County Crimestoppers for 10 years.
As a parent volunteer for 4-H, Ken was an adult chaperone for the Citizenship Washington Focus trip for 4-Hers in the Frontier District in 2010, 2012, and 2014. He was a project leader for and helped organize the first Kansas chapter of the Western Heritage 4-H project. Ken was on the building committee of the Osage County Fair Board and was highly involved in the design and construction of the Doren D. Frederickson Arena.
Ken was preceded in death by a brother, Russell; and his parents, Robert and Barbara Wilk.
Ken is survived by his wife, Sally, of over 41 years; daughter, Elizabeth “Ellie” Minnix and her husband, Luke, Scott City, Kan.; son, Kurtis Wilk and his wife, Kayse, Whitestown, Ind.; daughter, Tracy Wilk, Bellevue, Neb.; granddaughters, Julia Ann Minnix and Della Jean Minnix; brothers, Robert (Mary Beth) Wilk, Washington, N.J., Thomas (Mary Jo) Wilk, Kenvil, N.J., and James (Karen) Wilk, Kenvil; and many beloved brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, and nephews.
Visitation will be 5-7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10, at Feltner Funeral Home in Lyndon, Kan. The service will be 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11, at Feltner Funeral Home, followed by burial at Alpine Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions to the Ken Wilk Memorial Fund, for local charities and youth programs to be designated at a later date, sent in care of Feltner Funeral Home, 818 Topeka Ave., Lyndon, KS 66451. Condolences can be left at feltnerfunerahome.com.
