Kenneth B. Perrin was born to Clara Eisenhower and Clarence Perrin, on June 21, 1941, at his grandparent’s farmhouse south of Gregory, SD. He is the grandson of Gus and Lillie Sommerfeld, and nephew of Martin Sommerfeld.
Kenneth attended Climbing Hill School near his farm home, later attended Gregory High School, and graduated from Burke High School. He married Nell Turgeon and they later moved to Denver, CO. He attended and graduated from airframe and power plant school with his A&P license and was involved with aircraft his whole working career. His career started with Westcoast Airlines in Seattle, and later moved to Minneapolis with Northwest Airlines. He owned and rebuilt various airplanes of his own and loved to fly.
During the Vietnam War, he was in Southeast Asia, working for the CIA for four years. From there he relocated to Saudi Arabia to work for Armco Oil Company for another four years before returning to the US permanently. He ran a fixed base operation near Yakima, WA and later taught at South Seattle Community College.
In 1981 he married Anne. After joining Continental Airlines in Seattle, he was promoted to a supervisory position in Tucson and he and his wife relocated there in 1987. Later he was promoted to Supervisor of Maintenance and transferred to Houston, TX. He commuted from Tucson, for the next 12 years until he chose to retire back to Tucson in 2000. Kenn’s employment gave him and his wife the opportunity to travel extensively, including Hongkong, Africa, England, the Bahamas, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, and for their 25th anniversary, a tour of Europe. With their trailer, they saw most the US and some of Canada and used to spend three to four months in the summer at the farm where he grew up, which Kenn had inherited.
He passed away on October 1, 2024 in Tuson, AZ. Kenn is survived by his wife Anne; daughter Cherie and her husband Ty, and their daughter Kaitlyn of Yakima, WA; stepson Barron Baldwin and his wife Marci, and two children; stepdaughters, Kimberly and husband Todd, and Brooks and husband Jim, and her two daughters of Seattle; sister-in-law Gabrielle of Los Angeles He was preceded in death by his parents and sister Careen.
