Bill (Glenn William) Sorensen

Memorial services will be held Sabbath August 12 at 4:00 p.m. at Chapel Oaks Seventh-day Adventist Church, 6245 Monticello Road, Shawnee, Kansas.

Bill is survived by his son and his wife, Daniel Glenn and Mary Sorensen; daughter and her husband, Karen Suzanne (Sorensen) and Gerald Duwayne Whitson; brother and his wife Herb and Marilyn Sorensen; grandchildren (Ashleigh, Alicia, Garret, Samantha); great-grandchildren (Dillynn and Allison).

Memorial remembrances are suggested to Renewed Hope Food Pantry (RHFP.org).

Gravesite is at Mt. Moriah Cemetery, 10507 Holmes Rd, Kansas City, MO.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.mtmoriah.net for the Sorensen family.

Life story – Bill (Glenn William) Sorensen December 14, 1940 to July 15, 2023 – and memories

By Karen Whitson

My dad, Bill, was born to Ralph and Evelyn (Auxier) Sorensen on December 14, 1940 in Omaha, Nebraska. Dad told me about early childhood memories in Omaha. He remembered he lived on a farm where they rented a house. There was a railroad track and trains going by, a bucket of oil in the barn with a reflection that made it look like there was no bottom to it, He remembered being out in the yard one day when he got a bug in his ear and remembers his mom trying many ways to get the bug out. He didn’t remember how she got it out (we know she did though!). He remembered a bridge on a road not far from their house. His mom took picnic lunches to the bridge. He and his brothers ate lunch on the bridge often. He remembered going to Sabbath School at church in Omaha with aunts and uncles and lots of family.

While in Omaha, the family moved from the farm into town to a house on Charles Street with a big tree in the back yard. He remembered Uncle Copsey building a treehouse and playing there with “the Copsey boys,” his cousins. They lived on a hill and walked up the hill about a block to a drug store to get candy.

When Bill was about 4 years old, his family moved to Oak Grove, Missouri, where Ralph and Evelyn rented a house with a barn and lived for about a year. Aunt Jeraldine and Keith also moved there. They were friends there with the Eastland family (Ruth and Lawrence). Their son Jimmy became a good friend of Bill’s.

He remembers getting poison ivy while living in Oak Grove. He had poison ivy almost all summer, it seemed. He remembered one day when Mom and Ruth Eastland went to town, they left him and his brothers and friend Jimmy with their older sons. The older brothers jumped in the chicken coop and told them the wolves were coming, to scare them, and it did!

In Oak Grove, they had a horse named Lady. They rode around on a saucer behind Lady while she pulled them for fun. One day Ralph hooked up a harness to Lady and she helped them move a shed.

Dad remembered swimming in the James River near Oak Grove. He remembered swimming with his brothers Ed and Ray and a friend “Cal” (Calvin). He said Cal and his brothers lived around the corner from them and were always getting them into mischief. One day they were all throwing rocks and getting into trouble, and his dad Ralph came and asked Bill why he was doing that. He remembered telling him… “You can’t see me down there!”

Around 5 years old, Bill’s family moved to Kansas City. He remembers his 6th birthday party at his house at 8411 Park Ave. Kansas City, MO. They also lived for awhile at 105th and High Drive in Kansas City, MO. His family attended the SDA Church on the corner of Linwood and Charlotte.

Dad remembered one day when Ralph and Evelyn went to town and he stayed home with his brothers. They listened to a scary radio show about a guy who made himself invisible called “The Shadow Knows” Then his brothers Ed and Ray snuck outside and scratched on the window to scare Bill.

When it was time for school, Ralph took them to school and then took the streetcar home from 31st and Monroe. At a city park across the street by 31st and Monroe, Bill played softball with friends at noon over lunchtime. He went to a school called Kansas City Junior Academy. He went there through 10th grade. His brothers went to Sunnydale Academy but not Bill because the family moved to Oregon. His mom’s doctor (Dr Fletcher) had moved to Oregon. His dad Ralph helped build Dr. Fletcher’s house in Oregon (southern part of Oregon). So Bill went to Milo Academy as a Sophomore, the first year the school opened. He worked at the dairy and got up at 3:00 am to milk the cows. Ralph and Evelyn moved to Portland his junior year and Bill went to Milo Academy another year. He got kicked out of school that year. As he put it he was being ornery and mean, running off to town without permission, but they kicked him out for something they blamed him of doing that he didn’t actually do. He went to Portland Junior Academy the rest of his Junior year in high school.

The next summer, the family moved to Rialto, CA near Loma Linda, CA. Friends of the family Kenny and Virginia Schwarts moved there too. Ralph worked in Barstow,CA with Kenny Schwartz. For his senior year, Bill attended Loma Linda Union Academy, a 12-grade school. During his senior year, he worked at Loma Linda Hospital. Evelyn worked there too. Bill washed dishes and bussed tables in the cafeteria. With this job, he saved his money and bought a saxophone. Dad said he did better in school his senior year. After his senior year, during the summer Ralph and Evelyn moved back to the Kansas City area, and Bill attend La Sierra College for 1 semester. He came home the 2nd semester and worked with Ralph, then went back to La Sierra the following year. He came back home to work with Ralph again. At that time, his brother Raymond was in the Marine Corp, his brother Herb was going to Sunnydale Academy, and his brother Ed was married to Judy.

Bill liked to roller skate. He skated at the El Torreon Skating Rink at 31st and Gillham. That’s where he met Pat. He asked her on a date, and she told him she didn’t go out with strangers. He responded “I’m not strange” and convinced her to go to a Ben-Hur movie. They enjoyed swimming at the Kernoodle Lake. Only 6 months after they met, Bill and Pat were married. They moved to Phoenix two weeks later, so Bill could work for his dad Ralph in construction work.

Bill and Pat lived in an apartment when they first got married on November 19, 1960, and only after a couple of weeks they moved to Phoenix. Construction work in the winter was slow, so Ralph and Evelyn had moved to Phoenix a couple of months earlier working with Dick Richards. So Bill and Pat went there to join them. They stayed there about a 2 years (2 winters and one summer) when the company they worked for went bankrupt. Danny was born in Phoenix on April 9, 1962 and was 5 weeks old when they moved back to Kansas City. They got a house north of the river for a few months, then moved in with Ralph and Evelyn in a house near KU Medical Center for a month, then moved into their own apartment near KU Medical Center for a year and half. Ralph and Bill built a house, lived there a month and then sold it. When they sold that house, Bill, Pat, and Danny moved to Overland Park to their house at 7601 Newton. Karen was born on December 11, 1964. They family lived in this house on Newton for about 25 years.

At 22 years old, Bill started playing pool and got hooked on gambling. This became an addiction that was hard for him to break. He struggled with this, promised Pat he would stop and often found himself there again, after many times promising himself and her he would stop. This created some rough years for Pat raising Danny and Karen with many financial struggles.

Dad remembered at age 29, his brother Herb shared with him the story of the gospel that reached Dad’s heart in a new way. He finally understood what it meant to be born again. Since that time Dad loved the story of Nicodemus and spoke of Nicodemus to me often in his final days struggling with cancer. Even though he attended church and Christian schools, he had never personally sought and made that close connection with Jesus Christ, His Savior. His brother Herb helped him understand the gospel for the first time and said he was ‘blown away” that God saved him despite his failure and sin and gave him the free gift of grace. He is grateful to Herb and said Herb helped saved him for eternity. He started working out of town with Ralph and with this and God’s grace, he stopped playing pool. Bill and Pat and Danny and Karen started attending New Haven SDA Church.

Bill and Pat both became involved in the church with leadership roles in Pathfinders and Home and School. Bill taught Sabbath School lessons, became a deacon and elder of the church. Bill became passionate about sharing the gospel because he understood the transforming power of God’s grace. He experienced it in his own life, overcoming addiction to gambling. He wrote letters on Bible topics. He passed out literature to share God’s love and saving grace with his neighbors, he made the study of the Bible his life-long passion. Mom and Dad were both active in the New Haven Seventh-day Adventist church, Pathfinders, Vacation Bible School, and Midland Adventist School.

Throughout his life, Bill enjoyed sports, playing volleyball on Saturday nights at New Haven SDA Church/Midland School, pickup basketball at a neighborhood basketball court, football with friends on Sunday mornings, and a lot of golfing in his later years.

For his career, he started his own business called Siding by Sorensen and put aluminum, steel, and vinyl siding on many of the houses in the neighborhood around 76th and Newton and for many church members. With this business, he was able to pay for Danny and Karen to attend Midland School and Enterprise Academy, and for Karen two years at Union College. He began working for Peerless Products as a contractor and bidding larger government construction jobs and God blessed him financially so in the later part of his life with Pat and kids, the financial struggles were far less challenging. Around 1989, Bill and Pat moved to Lenexa, KS where they lived for 20 + years, then downsized a little bit, moving to a house in Olathe KS.

Bill’s great joy in life was sharing the gospel with friends, family, and anyone he came across. He sang in the choir and played his saxophone for special music. He and Pat hosted a weekly Bible study in his home, He always stopped by the side of the road to help someone with car trouble. This sometimes led to Bible studies with him in their homes. Bill and Pat were members of the Kansas City Central Church. He helped build the current church at 14651 SW Peterson Rd, Kansas City, MO. They were long-time members of New Haven SDA church, and were most recently members of the Chapel Oaks SDA Church.

Bill’s son/my brother Danny was born in Phoenix, and I was born in Kansas City. Two of his grandchildren are Ashleigh and Samantha. Ashleigh is married to Justin Willard and their children are Dillynn and Allison. Two more grandchildren are Alicia and Garret. Alicia is married to Ethan Ward.

As Dad kept his spirits up and never quit attitude after mom (his wife Pat) passed away January 24, 2022, he kept a great faith in Jesus. He enjoyed going out to eat at First Watch and Olive Garden and sharing his faith with the staff there. He enjoyed attending the weekly prayer meeting at Chapel Oaks. He believed the words in the Bible that tell us all who call on the name of Jesus will be saved. He called on His name to save him, trusted His blood to cleanse him from all sin. Using the words from 2 Timothy 4, He fought the good fight, he finished his race, he kept his faith.

Some of my greatest memories of dad are riding behind him on the motorcycle and always stopping by A&W for root beer, hiking at Shawnee Mission park on Sabbath afternoons, sledding at Antioch park on his back down a big hill and flying through the air to land on the frozen lake, passing out Bible lessons door to door with him on Sabbath afternoons.

As with my mom’s passing, I am once again reminded that our lives are fleeting and the things that temporarily entertain us or capture our time and energy will mean nothing to us if at the end of our life we haven’t made the choice to accept God’s grace and forgiveness. Through my Dad, I can see that we can overcome every challenge in this world through faith in Jesus because He overcame for us. Now that Mom and Dad have both finished their race, I am even more passionate about wanting to run my race well and finish strong. I wish everyone could know that God is not someone to be afraid of but someone to be a friend of.

During the last few months of dad’s life, from the time he was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer to his passing away about 3 months later at his home with 24-hour nursing care, we were together every day and he told me often about the long list of people he continued to pray for. We prayed every single day for all of his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, cousins, nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters to really search and know who God is, to know the goodness of God, and to accept his saving grace so we can all be together in Heaven. He was starting to forget some names, so he asked the caregivers to write names and tape them to a piece of paper on the wall so he could continue praying for each person by name. Dad and I both want to … and not just “want to” … it is our greatest desire and passion, … to experience the joy of finding you in Heaven. Let’s finish our race like Dad finished his with faith and a love for our Lord and Savior.