Ken Ackerman, 86, of Willmar, died Tuesday, June 3rd at Bethesda Grand in Willmar, MN. His funeral service will be Friday, June 6th at Living Hope in Willmar at 11:00am. Visitation was Thursday, June 5th at Living Hope from 6:30 – 8:00pm and continued one hour prior to the funeral service on Friday. Burial was on Saturday, June 7th at Concord Cemetery in West Concord, MN at 1:00pm. A fellowship gathering followed at Faith Community Church. Arrangements are with Harvey Anderson & Johnson Funeral Home in Willmar, www.hafh.org
Kenneth Earl Ackerman was born June 6, 1938, to Earl and Florence (Gildon) Ackerman in Detroit, MI. He graduated from Mackenzie High School, joined the Army Reserve, and attended Henry Ford community College. Upon college graduation he was hired by IBM. In the fall of 1958, on a blind date arranged by mutual friends, Ken met Nancy (Ball). They were married on September 9th, 1961. Together they moved several times between Minnesota and Michigan, raising their family while pursuing new opportunities for Ken’s career.
Ken enjoyed his career at IBM. He changed jobs within the company many times. He was very fascinated by the advent of business computers and how they worked to improve business transactions. His career began in Detroit by using his talents to maintain the operation of large computer systems and ended in the Development Laboratory in Rochester where he was able to apply all of his accumulated knowledge and experience. He worked on new applications of computers to help prosper businesses, especially enjoying participating in IBM's development of their Optical readers - which are still used in many retail and business industries today.
After 31 years of service to IBM, at age 53, Ken accepted an offer for early retirement, planning to use his time to work alongside Nancy as they pursued their desire to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ through short term missions. However, God's first mission assignment wasn’t a short one. For several years they ministered together to Ken’s elderly parents by bringing them into their own home and caring for them until they each died. Upon the passing of Ken’s parents, he and Nancy responded to a need at Camp Lebanon, a Christ-centered bible camp in Upsala, MN to serve as camp hosts. This was a year-round volunteer position so they bought a home in the woods next to camp. Ken loved interacting with all of the people that would come to the camp to use its facilities for their program events. After 15 years of resident volunteer service, Ken knew it was time to change focus and serve his Savior Jesus in a slower paced ministry. Ken and Nancy moved to Willmar, MN in 2013 and served their church family at Living Hope in various leadership roles.
Ken cherished his family and was actively involved in supporting his children and grandchildren.
He enjoyed making numerous wooden toys and treasure chests for his grandsons and an elaborate dollhouse for his only granddaughter. He also had lifelong interests in airplanes, kites, and model trains.
An outstanding trait of Ken's was his great sense of humor. He loved to make people laugh and help them look at life from a less serious viewpoint whenever he could. He successfully achieved this goal and there are many accounts of him helping others to look at situations with a smile rather than a frown! Even as his health diminished, God allowed him to produce laughter among others with a witty saying or two. Finally, may it be that Ken is remembered as one who loved Jesus and was blessed beyond measure as a child of God!
Ken is survived by his wife, Nancy of Willmar; sons: Michael (Melanie) Ackerman of Spicer, MN and Robert (Shannon) Ackerman of Litchfield Park, AZ; grandchildren: Ben, Joe (Kinsley), Sam, Molly, Jacob (Lisa), Nathan (Addison) and Ryan Ackerman; great-grandchildren: Chayton, Bexten, Colt, Letty, and Kennon. He is also survived by his sister, Marion Cox, as well as other family and friends.
Ken was preceded in death by his parents, Earl & Florence, and his brother-in-law, Frederick Cox.
