K.F. Wittelsberger Sr., Ken & Ray partner
Kenneth F. Wittelsberger Sr., a former partner in Ken & Ray Inc., a Baltimore office equipment supply company, died from heart failure Monday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center at age 90.
He was a resident of the Phoenix area of Baltimore County.
Kenneth Frederick Wittelsberger Sr. was the son of William P. Wittelsberger, a German immigrant, and Loretta Wittelsberger. He was born in Baltimore and raised in Hamilton.
He attended St. Anthony’s Elementary School in Gardenville, where he met Marianne Franz. They married in 1948.
He was a 1942 graduate of St. Paul’s School and played lacrosse on a team that won 72 successive games. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in 1946 from what is now Loyola University Maryland.
He also played on the Maryland Lacrosse Club team that was started by his father. He played in the first televised box lacrosse game, sponsored by Baltimore’s Gunther Brewing Co., which produced Gunther Beer.
He was a member of the Maryland Lacrosse Hall of Fame and sponsored the William P. Wittelsberger Award.
After college he and his brother, Ray, took over Adding Machines Sales & Service, a typewriter and adding machine sales business their father had established in 1928.
The brothers renamed the business Ken & Ray Inc., and over the years expanded its services. It was located on West North Avenue, and moved in 2008 to Hampden. Today, the familyowned business is in Bel Air. He retired in 2010. The company “was one of the first advertisers on the thenfledgling Channel 45 TV station in Baltimore,” said a son, Franz E. Wittelsberger, of Phoenix. Mr. Wittelsberger was a longtime resident of the Springdale community in Timonium, and had lived in Phoenix since 2005.
He enjoyed geography, poetry and restoring furniture. He was an accomplished painter of landscapes and preferred working with watercolors and acrylics.
He also was a fan of board games, with cribbage and Scrabble being two of his favorites. His wife of 64 years died in 2012. Mr. Wittelsberger was a longtime communicant of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, 100 Church Lane, Cockeysville, where a Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 11 a.m. Friday.
In addition to his son, Mr. Wittelsberger is survived by another son, Kenneth F. Wittelsberger of Bel Air; three daughters, Victoria Zeller and Marianne Bauer, both of Lutherville, and Sarah Butcher of Timonium; a sister, Jean Levassure of Huntsville, Ala.; 11 grandchildren; and 15 great-grandchildren. Another son, Max Wittelsberger, died in 2003.