Of Deacon Ken

Kenneth Donohue, known to countless Anchorage residents as "Deacon Ken" for his role in the local Catholic ministry, died Jan. 23, 2011 of pancreatic cancer. He was 71.

A visitation will be held from 7-9 p.m. Friday and his life will be celebrated with a Mass of the Resurrection at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, with a reception afterward in the church hall. A private burial with full military honors will be held at For Richardson, his last duty station as a U.S. Army officer.
Kenneth Donohue was born June 5, 1939, on Long Island, N.Y. He grew up in Baltimore, attending St. Charles Minor Seminary, Loyola High School, and Loyola College. In 1961, he earned a business degree and received his commission as a second lieutenant in the U. S. Army Reserves the same day.

He married Miriam Meisz on Sept. 9, 1961. Kenneth's military assignments included Baltimore, where son Brian was born; Asmara, Ethiopia, where Erin and Mark, their other children, were born; Vietnam; Fort Dix, N.J.; the Pentagon; and Fort Richardson. Following military service, he worked for the U.S. Civil Service until 1998. He obtained funding to build the Creek Course at Moose Run and the Army Recreational Center in Seward, Alaska.

Between military and civil-service careers, responding to God's calling, he became part of the Archdiocese of Anchorage's first formation class of permanent deacons. He was ordained Dec. 6, 1981. In subsequent years, he directed the formation program and served at St. Patrick's until 1995 and then at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's until his death. He counseled couples about marriage, officiated at weddings and funerals, baptized hundreds of babies, and frequently visited hospitals to pray with patients and comfort people in grief.

Deacon Ken perhaps most cherished his role teaching adults who expressed interest to learn about the Roman Catholic faith or to have a stronger relationship with God. Every year since 1984, he guided a group of adults through a months-long course in church values, culminating in baptism. The Archdiocese of Anchorage honored him in February 2010 with the St. Francis of Assisi Award.

Late in 2010, even after cancer, radiation and chemotherapy had sapped his stamina, Deacon Ken's spirit compelled him to teach a class to new aspirants to Anchorage's diaconate program.

He frequently credited his wife, Miriam, for the selfless love and encouragement that enabled him to pursue his vocation to God and the church. The couple held hands for more than 50 years.

Deacon Ken is survived by Miriam, his devoted wife of 49 years; by his son Brian, grandson Brooks and daughter-in-law Nicole, all of Seattle; daughter Erin and son-in-law Robb, of Anchorage; and son Mark, daughter-in-law Geri and grandchildren Emily Grace, Caleb and Jack, of Greenwood, La. He also is survived by two sisters and their spouses: Eileen and Chuck Lavin of Silver Spring, Md., and Carolyn and Gerry Gelazela of Surprise, Az., and their children. Other near family members include sister-in-law Dorothy Cooper of Easton and Henry and Karen Jeffries of Ellicott City, Md. Deacon Ken was preceded in death by his parents, Edmund and Lucia Donohue.

In lieu of flowers, the Donohue family asks that expressions of sympathy take the form of contributions to SEAS School/Parish Renovation Fund for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, 2901 Huffman Rd., Anchorage, AK, 99516-2042.

Arrangements are with Janssen's Evergreen Memorial Chapel; www.janssenfuneralhomes.com.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/adn/obituary.aspx?n=kenneth-donohue&pid=148091757&eid=sp_shareobit


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I didn't know any of that about him. Here's what I knew.

Deacon Ken was apart of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Church. When I attended their elementary school he gave me smiles, communion, guidance, and read me stories. He was humble and happy. His presence was always accompanied by that of Father Scott: they're inseparable in my mind.

Deacon Ken embodies a portion of my childhood that I hold with great affection. That school and that church that were the definition of my experiences and culture contained him as apart of what make them what they are in my memory. He is apart of the smell of the sanctuary, the look of the stained glass, the culture of the mass, the love that place exudes, the mystery it encompasses, and the lightness of childhood that I experienced.

Years after I had left St. Elizabeth's and was in high school, I went back to a mass there. I walked up the aisle for communion, wondered if after all these years and changes he would recognize me now from the elementary kid I was, and sure enough as he picked up a piece of communion and looked up at me a smile of sentimentality and recognition spread across his face, and I returned the favor: "The body of Christ" "Amen." That's the last memory I have of him.

Things we have eternal affection for will fade away. Churches will be knocked down and replaced, teachers will move on to different jobs, different priests will take over your parish, playgrounds will be expanded upon, and the places that you once knew will not be the same. They will, like everything, die. I'm learning that this is true in all areas of my life: that those experiences and times of life that I love, with a passion deeper than words, will pass away. But they leave an impression that never withers, and never falters, and never dies. When I think of St. Elizabeth's it is the same to me as it ever was, it feels the same as it did eight years ago. Deacon Ken is the same to me as he ever was, and that doesn't change, even now.

Deacon Ken, thank you for being who you were, and still are.

1/26/11