Kenneth Abels

Ken Abels died on December 22, 2025 from acute leukemia.  He was 78 years old.  His children were with him when he passed at Friends Home in Kennett.  Ken moved to the area to be close to his daughter five years ago.

Ken made his living by putting words on paper, literally.  He began his career writing for a military newspaper in Germany, his ancestral home.  After the Army, he got a job as a municipal reporter for a north Jersey daily newspaper.  He next worked for a New York City public relations firm.  There he learned how to sell; there he also learned how to be miserable. 

The highlight of his career was writing speeches and presentations for senior IBM executives.  His IBM gig lasted 20 years, and he had one principal client for almost a decade. 

Ken is survived by his children, Kevin and Kathleen and their spouses, Timothy and Emily; one grandson, Kieran, four years old; his younger brother Jim and sister-in-law, Jeanne; and his former wife, Pat.

Ken was an old jock, having played baseball, football and wrestling in high school.  He also wrestled for a few years in college. Ken was a long-suffering New York Jets fan, and to a lesser extent, the New York Mets.  He recently started to root for the Eagles and the Phillies when they weren’t playing the New York teams.  He considered himself a minimalist, an analog and low-tech kind of guy, and a small-d democrat (power to the people). 

His greatest joy was being a Dad.  He loved coaching his children in baseball and softball; and watching their soccer and basketball games.  He loved taking them camping, canoeing, and fishing. 

Ken took medication for anxiety and depression. The medication generally worked, though he went through periods of extremely low energy.  He also stopped drinking about 25 years ago.

“People in my family tend to live a long time.  I always thought I’d live to 90,” Ken said, “But then I began losing things I loved to do: hiking, camping, canoeing, fishing, traveling, reading books, driving… and it occurred to me that 90 wasn’t such a great idea for me.”

A personal hero of his was the great sports writer, Red Smith, whom he met a couple of times near the end of Smith’s life.  Smith once said something like: “Dying is no big thing. The least of us will manage that. Living is the trick.”

Living is, indeed, the trick.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Sierra Club and/or Friends Home in Kennett.

Visitation will be from 1:00PM until 2:00PM with a memorial service at 2:00PM on Saturday, January 24, 2026 at the LONGWOOD FUNERAL HOME & CREMATION of MATTHEW GENEREUX, 913 East Baltimore Pike, Kennett Square.  Burial will be private.  

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