It Is With A Very Heavy Heart... Kenneth Warren RIP

[Jim O'Bryan]

Kenneth Warren, on my porch the day "Captain Sucker Punch" was published!

This morning one of the best humans I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and working
with passed away. Kenneth Warren, age 63, died of a heart attack. His son Parker was by
his side according to his other son Beckett who called me.

He had been feeling bad since heading back to New York to take care of his parents, from
a poetry session celebrating friend Herbert Gold, at Lakewood Public Library, the institution
he headed for 25 years and made it the top library in the country 6 years in a row. He
went to his acupuncturist who treated him. He still felt bad, and Parker headed to New
York to take him to the "Western Doctor" at noon. While waiting to leave he suffered a
massive heart attack, and was pronounced dead in his home.

Family and friends are still trying to come to grips with this loss, and any information will
be posted.

I loved Ken Warren, he was a partner, mentor, astrologist and my best friend.

More later, I'm crying like a little baby!



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[Alex Belisle]

Wow! and we just spoke about him this morning and I was looking forward to meeting him.

[John LePlae]

I'm very saddened to hear this. Ken and JOB were the first people my friend and I met when we moved here from NY and California. Ken was so interested in why we chose Lakewood. It was just a pleasure to meet him and talk about our new city. That was more then 10 years ago and i'll never forget his graciousness. RIP Ken, you were admired by many.

[Edward Favre]

Deepest sympathy to all Ken's extended family. He did great work for Lakewood.

[Michael Deneen]

Very sad news. Thoughts and prayers to his family.

Ken was one of the driving forces behind the formation of the Observer.
So ironic that he passed right before our 10th anniversary.

[Edward Favre]

The Observer carrying on is a tribute to Ken.

[Thomas J. George]

I really got to know Ken in the 90s when he and I were members of the Denis Dunn monthly book club on Niagara Avenue. Along with Paul Wingenfeld, Steve and Rosemary DeJohn, Tom Sutton (not yet "Dr. Sutton), Matt Biscotti and others, we enjoyed lively and diverse literary discussion. Ken truly was a "Renaissance" man. His comments were deep, complex and well thought out.
Later I worked closely with Ken on a number of civic issues, but mainly the construction of the new main library. During the construction, the contactor along with Ken and I, met every week in the Panzica on site construction trailer to review progress and to identify and address potential issues. Ken knew the project inside out and paid keen attention to every detail. Ken was the first to credit others for the new building, and rightly so (past Library Board President Mary Lou Nixon passed away just last week). But we know the spotlight shown brightest on him.
Ken was a relative import to Lakewood. But unlike some others new to the area, he didn't perceive long time residents as unsophisticated backwoods types. And unlike some imports, he didn't seek to change Lakewood into something it is not and can never be. Instead he sought to build on Lakewood's existing strengths. Diversity, mature housing, walkability, neighborhoods, etc. He relished the youthful intellectual vibrancy of the city and recognized that this energy in Lakewood is something that cities such as Westlake and Avon will never match.
In my travels, people frequently tell me that Lakewood is one of the region's few bright spots. In so many ways, Ken Warren had much to do with this. Thank you Ken. My condolences to the family.

[Ivor Karabatkovic]

my condolences to his family and the many friends and co-workers that spent time with Ken during his time here in Lakewood. Ken always made sure to encourage me in photography and in pondering what's in front of us. I'll always treasure that. My prayers are with those who are hurting tonight.

[Gary Rice]

My thoughts and prayers are with the spirit of Ken and his family. He was an example of a person who showed how much one can indeed make a difference in this world.

As was written of Christopher Wren, famous London architect of the 1600's: "If you seek his monument, look around you."

Ken Warren WAS Lakewood, in so many many ways.

[Jim O'Bryan]

I have added some photos of the Ken to my photoblogs taken over the years.


Ken, Kiwanis Photo from the 80s.


Ken with good friend, lawyer and Library Board Member Jeff Endress.


Ken with the Library Board. He loved working with the Board.


Possibly one of Ken's happiest moments ever. Playing drums at the Library Gala Party prior to opening. He had been practicing with some of his favorite people, and he loved the drums.


The moment he forever remembered. Letting people into their new library.


Ken ready to hit the street. Ken requested purple caps like the ones James Brown wore
in his final set on stage.


Instead Ken bought us these fucked up hats, and we had to wear them everywhere.


Back to steal some berries. Finally a guy came out and threatened to shoot us if we took any more. As he went to get his gun, I told Ken we have a couple more minutes, and it is doubtful he could hit anything in his current aggravated state. Ken grabbed some more then scurried back to the car and said let's go. We only went back during the day after that.


Badass!




OHIO, Ken hated your pizza, I don't care what he said or what you think. KEN HATED IT, and would bitch about it all the time.


Ken stick fighting with Cool Cleveland's Thomas Mulready


The "Pleather Boys" photo.


This past summer at India Garden. Left to right. Parker Warren, Beckett Warren, Ken Warren, Craig Bell, and Deb O'Bryan.


Ken posing with another bear.


Portrait of Ken for the back of his book. I will never be able to express the impact this person had on my life, and the lives around him. He was one of a kind, with the mold broken, to steal from Hunter Thompson-- an author he loathed...:

"You couldn't invent someone like Kenneth Warren. He was one of a kind. He was a mutant. A real heavyweight water buffalo type... who could chew his way through a concrete wall and spit out the other side covered with lime and chalk and look good in doing it."

Ken-- peace/love and goodbye

A hundred or so photos of Ken during some of our exploits.
http://www.lakewoodobserver.com/photoblogs/jim-obryan/kenneth-warren-1951-2015

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[bob dobush]

RIP

[Dan Slife]

I first met Ken when I was a lost college student struggling to find meaning in a world turned upside-down by the events of September 11, 2001. Ken had an instinct, an x-ray vision, for seeing the potential in people that they themselves might often be unaware of. He was best known to the community leaders of Lakewood as a master recruiter for any local cause with a positive mission and just as he could see that untapped potential in individuals, so did find and extol the golden nuggets of goodness in every such cause he contacted. He was an elevator and bridge builder for community spirit and action.

Ken first recruited me to volunteer for the Friends of Lakewood Public Library and then to serve on the 2003 levy campaign that would successfully secure additional operating revenue and the building bond that would fund the renovation and expansion of Main Library. This was a rare, perhaps unprecedented accomplishment for an Ohio public library. Such unprecedented accomplishments at Lakewood Public Library and in community action generally were always par for the course with Ken, who believed Lakewood was a special place deserving and deeply appreciative of excellence in public service and community life in general.

At Lakewood Public Library he would build a team of skilled and dedicated staff at all levels of the organization who would make possible in the early 2000's the extension of operating hours to what remains the highest of any single public library location in the state of Ohio at 80 hours per week. The commitment of his board and team was recognized by professional awards for innovation, quality of service and quantity of outputs. In short, Lakewood Public Library was established as a standard bearer under Ken's leadership.

As other's have mentioned, Ken would always give the credit back to the team, to the Board whose commitments make or break a program, and to the community that decides to support the public good.

Ken would bring an unmatched level of engagement, vigor and loving attention to any person, project or organization that crossed his path. He would never sugar coat what he perceived to be blind spots in one’s perceptions or an organization’s program. With Ken, it always came straight with a chaser of advice on improvement and a celebration of fledgling or hidden potential. He energized our fair city in this way, one relationship at a time.

While Ken would never back down from a fight, when necessary, he sought to avoid conflict at all costs and truly believed with the heart of a librarian and poet that through mutual understanding and creative adjustment common grounds could be forged and a better future realized. He knew it was all about relationships and carried this truth with him until the end of his life.

I was privileged to have known Ken, to have worked with him to advance the mission of the Lakewood Public Library, to have participated in the founding of the Lakewood Observer and the Lakewood Earth and Food Community.

His friendship, mentorship and brotherly love was a gift. He was a unique soul in so many ways. The world’s loss of his caring service to libraries, community and poetry is tremendous.

Rest in peace, Ken. Godspeed.

[michael gill]

Ken's involvement was an enormous boost to LEAF in those early years.

It was validation, at a critical time: LEAF, in about 2006 or 2007 was an upstart idea held by a bunch of mostly twenty-somethings. Most people in town didn't know what Community Supported Agriculture was, and the mayor at the time wanted no part of community gardening. But Ken, of course, was the director of a major public institution. His presence significantly raised the profile of the effort, and when it came time to make LEAF's CSA pick-up a larger, weekly event, he made good on his commitment by offering the front steps of the new library as a venue. Not only that, he made sure that the support staff pitched in. His role in LEAF was catalytic, and the gift of his endorsement lives on in LEAF's continued presence there.