Kone (USA, Ret.)

27-year career as a Business Manager and eventually Vice-President of Pine Crest Preparatory School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He shepherded campus, personnel, and student growth, added premiere academic, cultural, and athletic facilities, and spearheaded the development of the Pine Crest School Boca Raton campus. Ken and Dottie were very involved in community charities and the Lutheran Church but found their passion in orchids and travel. Shortly after their move to Fort Lauderdale, they happened to be driving past a nursery that was having an orchid sale. They stopped, looked, and bought. From those few orchid purchases, their collection grew to thousands of plants, filling their screened patio with a profusion of colorful blooms. “We originally intended to have a pool, but it got out of hand,” Ken recounted. They both earned accreditation from the American Orchid Society to judge orchid shows. Ken twice served as president of the Fort Lauderdale Orchid Society and frequently served as Chairman of the Society’s annual orchid shows. He was the Show Chairman of the 1984 World Orchid Conference and co-Chaired the 2007 World Orchid Conference. He became particularly adept at making new hybrid crosses, often naming them after a family member. One of his orchid crosses, suitably called “Ken Kone,” earned the Roy T. Fukumura Award as a “best in show” from the American Orchid Studies. Dottie

and Ken traveled worldwide, often to see exotic orchids but also to vacation in Istanbul, St. Petersburg, Russia, Thailand, New Zealand, South America, Alaska, and many other destinations. As Dottie became ill in 2003, Dottie and Ken moved to The Woodlands, Texas, to be closer to Daisy and Bruce, a physician, and the Texas Medical Center. After 49 years of marriage, Dottie died peacefully in Houston in 2005. After her death, Ken followed Bruce and Daisy to Gainesville, Florida, where Ken was active in the Gainesville Orchid Society and made many great friends. In 2014, Ken moved back to Houston because of declining health, where Bruce and Daisy had relocated. He lived there until his death. Ken is remembered as a brave soldier, military and civilian leader who overcame tragedies to lead an extraordinary life full of love for his family, friends, and country. When Dennis would say, “Thank you for your service” on Veteran’s Day each year, Ken would say, “No, thank you for yours.” He was grateful for and keenly aware of his family’s sacrifices to support his distinguished military service and they are incredibly proud of him and thankful for his love.

The Kone family thanks Ken’s caregivers at Belmont Village-West University Place and Accent Care, his cardiologist Oscar Rosales, MD, and his geriatrician Maureen Beck, ARNP, for their excellent care. The funeral service is to be conducted at nine o’clock in the morning on Friday, the 14th of October, in the Old Post Chapel of Fort Myer Army Base in Arlington, Virginia. The interment, with full military honors, will follow at Arlington National Cemetery, where he will be interred with Dottie. In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests with gratitude that memorial contributions in Ken’s name be directed to the Wounded Warriors Project, P.O. Box 758516, Topeka, Kansas 66675-8516; the Gainesville Orchid Society, PO Box 5927 Gainesville, Florida 32627-5927; or to the charity of one’s choice. Please visit Col. Kone’s online memorial tribute at www. geohlewis.com where fond memories and words of comfort and condolence may be shared electronically with his family.