Kenneth E. Visser

Mr. Visser died Sunday, Oct. 26, 2003, at Mercy Regional Health Center in Manhattan. He donated his body to the Kansas University Medical Center.

He was born March 27, 1927, near Riley, the son of William Edward and Martha W. (Sylvester) Visser. He attended Bethel Grade School and graduated from Riley High school in 1945 and Kansas State University in 1952 and 1957, when he received a master’s degree in animal nutrition.

Mr. Visser enlisted in the U.S. Army on Jan. 19, 1946, and served principally with the Stars and Stripes newspaper in Germany until he was honorably discharged in December 1948. He was a 4-H agent in Marshall County for four years and was later assistant county agricultural agent in Brown County.

He farmed near Wakefield for 26 years and started one of the first specific pathogen-free swine herds in the state.

Mr. Visser was a lay pastor for the United Methodist Church in Manchester/Wells for three years after he retired from farming. He also sold securities and insurance for several years.

He served on the County Agricultural Extension Board, Clay County Fair Board, Wakefield Fair Board, Kansas Pork Producers Council, Kansas Livestock Assn., Clay County ASCS Committee and Clay County Farm Bureau Board. He was also a volunteer at the Riley County Senior Center, lifetime member of the United Methodist Church and member of the College Avenue United Methodist Church.

He married Rosemary Wade on May 30, 1954, in Riley. She survives of the home.

Other survivors include a daughter, Yvonne Kay Cummins, Hockley, Texas; two sons, Karl Kenton, Champaign, Ill., and Jerry John, Brookings, S.D.; five brothers, George, Riley, LeRoy, Milo, Nev., Virgil, Wakefield, Eugene, Goff, and Albion, Sidney, Neb.; a sister, Evelyn Smith, Great Bend; and six grandchildren.

An infant grandson died earlier.

Family will receive friends from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday at the church.

The family suggests memorials to the church, Riley County Historical Museum for the Veterans Oral History Project or K-State Foundation for the Kenneth and Rosemary Visser Scholarship Fund, sent in care of Yorgensen-Meloan-Londeen Funeral Home, 1616 Poyntz Ave., Manhattan 66502.