J. Kenneth Atkinson

Ken Atkinson, 91, a long time resident of Cool, died peacefully in the company of his wife, Marin, and other family, from complications of heart disease, last Friday afternoon at his home in Auburn Lake Trails. Loving husband, father and grandfather; generous friend; good neighbor; master machinist; deputized Sheriff's keeper...these words and more cannot fully describe this good, principled man.

Ken was progressing rapidly as a young machinist - he seemed to have a gift for the work - when the war brought his enlistment in the U.S. Navy in 1944, where, as a Seaman First Class, he served as instructor for new recruits at the Naval Training Center, Bainbridge MD. After discharge in 1946 he resumed his career as a machinist. He led a team that retooled aluminum planing machines brought over from Germany, at the Kaiser Steel plant in Cupertino Calif. These were the first machines to produce the aluminum foil that later became a kitchen staple.

Ken also worked for Bostitch, a company that produced box-making machines, at first as an on-site equipment installer and troubleshooter, a job that had him flying around the country much of the time, and later in a management position that afforded lovely trips for Ken and his wife Marin, to Hawaii, Mexico and England. At that time Ken and Marin (both native Californians) enjoyed living in southern Massachusetts, where they took up sailing and tennis with friends.

After retirement, the couple moved to the Trails, where they have resided for 27 years. Here Ken switched to golf when tennis elbow got the best of him. From 1995 until quite recently, he worked part time for the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department as a "keeper," doing on-site monitoring of small businesses under judicial oversight. And, as had happened throughout his life, people in the Trails constantly asked for Ken's help in breathing new life into old engines. He was working on cars and motorized appliances right up to the time of his recent, final illness.

J. Kenneth Atkinson was born to Roland Moore Atkinson and Helen Knapp Atkinson in Sanger Calif., on September 23, 1919. He later moved to San Jose, where he graduated from San Jose High School, as did his father before him and younger brother later.

Marin and Ken met briefly in Bolinas Calif., but many years passed before they met again and fell in love. For the next 47 years they remained lovers and best pals. Besides Marin, Ken's surviving family include sons James Kenneth Atkinson, Jr, of Santa Rosa; Dennis Sandell Ott, of Vacaville; and Martin Swan Atkinson, of San Jose; and a brother, Roland Moore Atkinson, Jr., of Portland Ore. Ken was preceded in death by his son Clayton Atkinson, brother Donald Atkinson and sister Andrea Atkinson Mack.

A memorial service for Ken will be held this Saturday, April 23, 2011 at 2 p.m., in the Barn Loft, 1400 American River Trail, Auburn Lake Trails, in Cool. In lieu of flowers, donations in Ken's memory may be made to Snowline Hospice, 6520 Pleasant Valley Road., Diamond Springs CA 95619.

Arrangements under the direction of Chapel of the Hills, Auburn, CA.