Nelson J. Kjos

Nelson J. Kjos, age 73 after a two and a half year battle with brain cancer, went home to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ on Monday, August 3, 2009 at his home in St. Clair Shores. Nelson was born May 31, 1936 in Fort Peck, Montana the son of the late Norris and the late Clara Kjos. Nelson applied himself passionately to whatever he did in his life as an example would be his acheivement of becoming an Eagle Scout. As a teenager he became a professional magician. He then served in the United States Air Force, and while serving became the Alaskan state table tennis champion. In his early career he became passionate about both life insurance and chess and became both the top salesman and the youngest manager in Mutual Trusts history as well as a rated chess master. In nineteen sixty-five he gave up his lucrative life insurance career to pursue his new and lifelong passion for professional conservative stock market investing, and spent the rest of his career as a professional money manager. However, his greatest earthly passion was for teaching the wisdom he had learned through poetry. His poetry has appeared in many magazines, and he recently published his sixth poetry book, The Renaissance Poet of Wall Street and Main Street. He gave his time freely to others, counseling young people both professionally and personally. His community involvement included serving on the board of the Christian Financial Credit Union for the past thirty years. In his free time his favorite place to be was on a golf course with his wife and friends. Nelson hoped that his poetry would benefit others beyond his death, but he proclaimed that all of the wisdom contained in his poetry was from the Holy Spirit, and he hoped that his faith in Jesus Christ would be his greatest legacy, and his faith in Christ has indeed been passed on to his family, and to his grandchildren. He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Beverly; sons, Eric and Neil Kjos; grandsons, Michael and Stephen; brother, Norris "Jerry" (Ruth) Kjos. Visitation for Mr. Kjos will be held Friday 3-9 pm at the D.S. Temrowski & Sons Funeral Home, 30009 Hoover Road at Common (12 1/2 Mile Road). He will lie in state Saturday 10:00 am at Knox Presbyterian Church, 25700 Crocker in Harrison Township, until the time of the Funeral Service at 11:00 am. Officiating the Funeral Service will be Pastor Ryan McVickar. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to Knox Presbyterian Church to the Nelson J. Kjos memorial fund to be used to support their missions work around the world. Please share memories at Nelson's guestbook.