Kenneth Kinman

Ancestors

Son of Fred Eldon Kinman and Edith Rose (LaOrange) Kinman

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Kenneth Kinman [send private message]

Kenneth Kinman is a member of the Kinman Name Study Project.

This profile is part of the Kinman Name Study.

Biography

Kenneth Eldon Kinman was born in 1951, St. Rose Hospital, Great Bend, Barton County, Kansas, and raised in nearby Hoisington, Kansas.

My parents drove from Hoisington to Great Bend at 2:00 A.M. during a blizzard, and I was born at 7:40 A.M. (birth weight 8 lbs. 5 oz.). My first name Kenneth was suggested by a family friend (Wendell Bott) and my middle name is the same as my father's middle name.

During my first 6 months, we lived at 464 West 1st in Hoisington, but about August 1951, my father bought our residence at 665 West 3rd. My Aunt Gloria LaOrange moved in with us, so she was one of my first baby-sitters. When I was three or four years old, my baby-sitter (Sharon Poer from next door) taught me how to tie my shoes. When I was four years old, I fell off of the white fence southwest of our house and suffered a greenstick fracture, the only broken bone I have ever had.

I attended Roosevelt Elementary School, and then Hoisington Jr. and Sr. High Schools. We took a vacation to Cass Lake, Minnesota, in July 1963, with the Maurice Popp family, where my Aunt and Uncle Heitschmidt ran a resort.

My only hospital stay was in the summer of 1966 (Hoisington Lutheran Hospital) for pneumonitis. Dismissed from that hospital on 03 July 1966 (source: 05 July 1966 issue of Great Bend Tribune, page 2). Sang in all the available singing groups in High School (Glee Club, Mixed Chorus, Boys Ensemble, Hoisington High Singers). In National Honor Society my Junior and Senior years. Was elected French Club President my senior year. Graduated from Hoisington High School in May 1969 and was elected "Outstanding Senior Boy" of the class of 1969.

Attended the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, and first lived for three years at Grace Pearson Scholarship Hall (served as Secretary during my Sophomore year and Treasurer my Junior year). I was elected to membership in the K.U. Owl Society, and also elected President of the K.U. Chemistry Club. Classes were disrupted in May 1970 by a big fire in the Student Union, protests, bombing of the Computer Center, and the Governor sending in the National Guard. In the summer of 1971, I drove to the Black Hills and Badlands (South Dakota), Glacier National Park (Montana), and Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming). Stopped by Gillette, Wyoming, on my way back to visit with Uncle Jim LaOrange and Aunt Kay. I spent nearly three weeks in Washington D.C. during the spring of 1973, and it was from my visits to the Smithsonian Institution that inspired me to eventually devote much of my time to biology.

I graduated in March 1974 with a B.A. in Chemistry. Worked as both a chemist and biologist (mostly the latter). Worked at various jobs, including work for E. Raymond Hall on 2nd Edition of Mammals of North America. I started a species checklist of Mammals of World in 1975, eventually expanded it to a catalogue of all species and subspecies of mammals of the world. During the spring semester of 1977, I audited Dr. Ashlock's systematic biology course. Moved back to Hoisington in the summer of 1977. Poisoned by chlordane fumes from termite pest control in May 1978 and developed severe anxiety and OCD. Returned to Lawrence later in 1978 (worked again for E. Raymond Hall), but due to horrible neighboring tenants, I moved back to Hoisington in April 1979.

Back to Lawrence in September 1979 to Co-author a reference book, Mammal Species of the World (First Edition; published in 1982). Also co-authored scientific papers on Kansas spiders after many years of collecting. But most of my time has largely been devoted to doing genealogical research (since 1979), including three trips to Salt Lake City (1982, 1985, and 1986). Enjoyed babysitting nephews and nieces in Hoisington during the 1980's. The longer 1985 trip to Salt Lake City lasted from late February to late May. Life in Hoisington became a struggle, so I moved to Hays, Kansas, in September 1989. Still here in Hays.

Of all the poetry I have ever written, one of my favorite poems is still a short one that I wrote in October 1973 during the Arab-Israeli War. I was lying in the grass under a tree on West Campus (Lawrence, Kansas):

Title: "October 1973"

A slender thread of spider's home

Floats lazily above my head

Upon some sweet October breeze

That's cool or warm depending on

The sun that shines down quietly,

Not only on my own repose,

But also plans to dawn upon

Those lands engulfed by war.

Another favorite poem I wrote:

Title: "Flowing Reflections"

So quiet hangs the silent thought----

Reflections flow that claim my mind,

Floating---as though time was null

And life was but a special dream.

Every moment makes me think

And helps to form philosophy,

That all my being be preserved

Though memory fails to save it.

As some of life's events fade on,

Absorbed into the past's dark fog,

The ones that count will linger where

My thoughts may touch from time to time.

And another favorite poem I wrote:

Title: "The Word"

Look on with awe the written word,

Man's greatest tool besides his mind,

And watch these two in concert yield

A synergistic miracle.

Words allow that we might make

A concrete thing from weightless thoughts

But they convey both lies and truth

And thus they bring no guarantee.

And another:

Title: "Forsythia"

Forsythia bloom in the early spring

And make the greening landscape shine

With soft and fragrant petals gold

That promise us that winter's done.

Inhale the fresh and sweetened air

Of new-born life emerging from

The rich dark loam the living past

Has left to its descendants.

And feel the quickened pulse of life

As winter's quiet melts away,

An optimistic mood prevails

For nature blooms and life renews.

Title: "Autumn 2011"

A flash of color flutters above me,

One lonely monarch heads south towards home,

Those Mexican mountains which during the winter

Will give it the warmth and protection it needs.

Flocks of sparrows also move through,

Briefly they're stopping to feed in the grass,

Fueling their bodies to continue their journey,

They travel together which helps keep them safe.

Title: "One western kingbird nest"

The kingbirds they nested between two poles,

But male and female had quite different roles;

She toiled for a week to build a new home,

A very large cup like an upside-down dome.

Her mate was less busy, but always on guard,

Intruders repelled with a sudden charge;

This space is for us, our eggs and our nest,

Beware interlopers, you're unwelcome guests.

Once the eggs were laid, they were treated with care,

Rolled over, incubated, as if they were rare;

Quite an investment for the parents-to-be,

Be it instinct or love, it was something to see.

Then three weeks later, the hatching commenced,

With parental duties becoming intense;

With hungry mouths demanding more food,

No rest for the weary of this most precious brood.

Origin of the surname KINMAN: either an occupational name for a cowherd, from the Middle English kineman (cattle man), or from a Middle English survival of the Old English personal name Cynemann (royal man; the king's man).

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by Kenneth Kinman.

• Paternal relationship is confirmed through Y-chromosome DNA testing. Kenneth Kinman and Brandon Kinman match on 37 out of 37 markers thereby confirming their direct paternal lines back to their MRCA Francis Kinman.

• Maternal relationship is confirmed through mt-chromosome DNA testing. Kenneth Kinman was a perfect match (Genetic Distance = 0) with Mrs. Kay Diane Strohen. She does not appear on Wikitree, but we have a common ancestor in the all female mitochondrial line (also confirmed by conventional genealogical sources).