Kenneth A Brewer

Ken Brewer, 84, died peacefully at his Virginia home and will be buried in Ames, Iowa, his hometown for more than 40 years. A funeral service will be Thursday, Dec. 29th at 10:30 a.m. at Stevens Memorial Chapel. The family will be present for a visitation starting at 9:30 a.m. A family-only burial will follow.

Ken was born in Winfield, Kansas to a sharecropping family. His earliest memory is of living in a stone house that was built into the side of a hill and a dog named Ranger. His early years motivated him to work hard as he did not enjoy eating pigeons from the barn or picking cress from the creek. It was a source of amusement to him in later years when posh restaurants offered squab or cress salad as in his mind, that was poor people's food.

He enjoyed school in a one-room schoolhouse with a teacher who taught him how to write left-handed (a rarity in those days). One day a crew was building a bridge near his home and he asked one of the men how he could get a job doing that. He was told to go to college and become a Civil Engineer; that became his goal. Growing up outside Winfield, he loved attending his country church, loved square dancing, and played every sport he could for fun (he sometimes joked he played them all but wasn't great at any of them).

In June of 1957, he asked out Nante Brewer (no relation!) on a dare. They were at the local swimming pool and she thought he was cute in his red and white striped swimming trunks. His friends said she wouldn't go out with him and dared him to ask her out. They were wrong. She said yes. Years later, when asked why they got married, Nante said she knew Ken Brewer was leaving Winfield and he was going places. She was right.

They got married while he was at K-State. She dropped out of college and went back to work as a telephone operator to support them, a job she learned in high school. Mike, their oldest son, was born a year after they married so Ken went to school during the day and studied and watched Mike at night. Nan watched Mike during the day and worked at night. The next years were busy with his graduation, more schooling, Army obligations in Oklahoma where their son Jeb was born, and more schooling. After completing his Ph.D. at Texas A&M, they moved to Ames and he began teaching Civil Engineering at Iowa State. Their daughter Kathleen was born in Ames and the Brewers enjoyed living on the west side of Ames for many years on what was then "new Ross Road" not to be confused with "Old Ross Road." They loved their yard, watching their kids participate in school activities, and sitting on their porch. They shared an enjoyment of cold coke, dancing (they even enjoyed Red Friars in the 70s and 80s), and laughter.

Ken worked at Iowa State for more than 30 years and stayed active in civil engineering after retirement by serving on testing boards, and safety boards and going on civil engineering-related mission trips overseas. He won state and national awards and had a great sense of pride that he started out writing on a chalkboard in a country school, then calculated college equations with a slide rule, and was one of the first to leverage small personal computers at ISU for use on projects and papers. They eventually moved to the Stone Brooke neighborhood in North Ames and then to Virginia in recent years.

He leaves two legacies to his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. One is a work ethic that allowed him to achieve much and open doors for others. The other is dedication and commitment to the practice of the Christian faith. His belief in God and his devotion to the church, Bible study, and reading gave him much comfort throughout his entire life. Philippians 2 says to "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and act in order to fulfill his good purpose." Ken was a worker and was committed to learning all he could about engineering, new technologies, and also his God.

He tried to use his gifts in the best way he knew in the working out of his salvation. Like all of us, sometimes he failed, and sometimes he succeeded. Sometimes he chose the hard right over the easy wrong and sometimes he didn't. But he always knew the truth that Jesus saves, Jesus is God's son, Heaven is real, Hell is real, the Bible is true and redemption at the cross is the only remedy to the sting of death. That made all the difference to him in his life and has made all the difference to his family who remains here without him. His family is grateful that although he has died to this life, it is in dying that Ken, and all who truly believe, will rise again with Christ.

He was preceded in death by his parents: Boyd and Alta Brewer, his son: Jeb Brewer, and his wife: Nan. She is mentioned often here because Ken and Nan were, in many ways, the largest part of the other's life, having been married for so many years before death parted them.

He is survived by two brothers: Gary (Mary) Brewer and Donald (Charlotte) Brewer both of Winfield, a sister: Karen Bloss of Wichita, Kansas, a daughter Kathleen Brewer Muhlbauer (Tom) of Earlysville, Virginia, a son Mike Brewer (Cheryl) of De Land, Illinois and a daughter-in-law, Linda Brewer (Jeb) of Des Moines as well as 13 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.

The family requests no flowers be sent. Instead, please donate in Ken's memory to:

Story County Gideons Camp, P. O. Box 2375, Ames, Iowa 50010

Salvation Army-Ames, 703 East Lincoln Way, Ames, Iowa 50010