Ken Gezella
It was back some time ago when Ken was a member of Holy Trinity Parish in Pine Grove that he first got involved in the Knights of Columbus at the invitation of another member of the Council.  As he was involved in the life of the parish, serving as a Eucharistic Minister and a member of the Parish Council, so he took on several responsibilities in the Knights, serving especially in the area of programming.  He recalls some of the activities, such as steak cookouts and Tootsie Roll drives, and remembers especially having to attend an awful lot of meetings.  Several members of his Council wanted him to serve as Grand Knight, but he did not accept the position.   

After a time, the family grew and the house with several extra rooms and several acres of grass to cut seemed to be too much.  Some health problems also began making an appearance and Ken and his wife built a home in Green Bay and moved.  Some of his many involvements passed to the wayside and the Knights was one of them.  He dropped out until he was recently convinced to become an active member again and joined Council 10243.  Now, retirement has brought some responsibilities as well and he's not as able to make it to meetings as he'd like to, but he did get involved in a recent booyah sale and enjoyed the camaraderie that was evident in the preparation. 

Originally from Green Bay, Ken's dad had a farm in the Humboldt area where Ken lived for a number of years.  He likes to joke that he started working at the age of five, pointing out that he served as a rural mail carrier for 37 years and he also worked in a paper mill for 24 years.  He retired from the Postal Service in 1998.  Ken and his wife, Cynthia, have been married for almost 47 years now and have six children, several of whom live in the area.  They have also been blest with fourteen grandchildren.  In his younger days Ken enjoyed water skiing, but these days he's more interested in golf and taking advantage of opportunities to travel.  He and Cynthia were getting ready for a trip to Florida at the time of this interview.  In their travels they managed to take a cruise to some islands in the Caribbean and also went through the Panama Canal.  In season, there's still some yard work to do, though not nearly as much as in their last home.  They also are proud of their flowers in season.  They both spend a good deal of time caring for elderly relatives: his mother is living at Odd Fellows Nursing Home and Cynthia's dad suffered from Alzheimer's.  One annual charitable activity that has grown into a family project is to secure groceries for the Carmelite Sisters at the monastery in Denmark.  Last year they managed to obtain several thousand dollars worth of food, and since the well at the monastery provided poor drinking water, they got ten cases of water donated and additional cases at a discount.  It turned out to be four carloads worth of supplies at the time of delivery. 

March 2004