Kenneth C. Weston

Kenneth Weston, also known as "Mickey" to his childhood friends, was born in Portland, Oregon on July 7, 1938. He grew up near Kenilworth Park in SE Portland, attending St. Ignatius School and graduated from Cleveland High School. At the age of 16, with the assistance of his brother’s ID card, Ken joined the Air Force ROTC program and enlisted full time with the Air Force after graduating from high school.

From 1957-59 he was stationed at Misawa Air Base in Japan where his days were spent listening to Russian telegraph transmissions. While home on leave in 1958 he was introduced to a beautiful young lady named Lesley Barr by a mutual friend. The two became pen pals and on September 1, 1961, they were married. After a brief time in California the newlyweds moved to Germany where Ken was stationed at Hahn Air Base. In 1964 the couple welcomed their son, Ken Jr., into the world. After his deployment in Germany ended, the family spent a year in Alabama before moving to the Panama Canal Zone where he was stationed at Albrook Air Base.

While in Panama the family welcomed a daughter, Angela. After Panama the family moved to South Dakota for a year before Ken was deployed to Thailand during the Vietnam War and Lesley and the children returned to Portland to stay with family. Upon his return, Ken was stationed at Beale Air Base in California where he was joined by Lesley and the children. Ken acted as leader for his son’s Webelo troop while in California and as Scout leader in Germany while stationed at Bitburg Air Base. The family returned to Portland and the last six months of Ken’s Air Force career were spent at McChord Air Force Base, retiring in 1979.

Shortly after his retirement from the Air Force Ken went to work as a field representative for Deutsche Financial. Ken and Lesley loved to entertain. During the summers, the whole neighborhood came to swim in their pool and in December they hosted the big family Christmas party. Ken and Lesley enjoyed league bowling together and “getting lost” on the weekends. Ken loved to do crossword puzzles, follow the news, build models, and enjoyed attending reunions through the Misawa Project. For Ken, no afternoon was complete without watching “Ellen”. He loved spending time with family, especially the grandkids, and was a gentle giant with a good sense of humor.

On February 23, 2015, Ken passed away at home, surrounded by the love of his family. He will be missed by his daughter and son-in-law, Angela and John Stavrakis; son, Ken Jr., and daughter-in-law, Carol Sprague; daughter, Leslie Jackman, and son-in-law, Joseph Guerena; grandchildren, Alex and Peter Stavrakis, Danielle and Tyler Weston, and Annika and Nik Guerena; and his loving dog, Mellie. Ken was preceded in death by his mother, Bernadine, in 1977; his brother, Gene Weston, in 1994; and his beloved wife, Lesley, in 2006.

A Funeral Mass will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 28, 2015 at St. John Fisher Church. A graveside service will be held at Willamette National Cemetery on Monday, March 2, 2015 at 9:30 a.m. with full Military Honors. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Loaves & Fishes.